IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1132

ON LOVE; PART DCCXXI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).

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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.

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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).

In the story of the two disciples who walked unawares with the Master after His resurrection, we have a strange mix if ideas and, when combined with the brief view of this from Mark’s Gospel, we should see that this IS presented for us with purpose. As we discussed, whether the second disciple in the story IS Peter or some other, it DOES NOT Truly matter; the inclusion of Peter however DOES give our view of their confusion and doubt yet greater meaning as it IS Peter who IS closest to the Master according to most gospel accounts. We should understand here that for us there ARE two realities to this story; first there is the confusion and the doubt that IS shown and that the Master calls “their unbelief and hardness of heart“, this IS confirmed by the other gospels. We should try to see that the resurrection of the Master should have been the event that Truly convinces them and understand that the apostles still have trouble shedding their own carnal ideas of Life. Here the Master had already shown the nature of death as He had previously raised Jairus daughter and Lazarus and yet the apostles DO NOT see the deeper meaning of what He has DONE. In His own resurrection we see that He accomplishes this Himself as He predicted saying, among other things, that:

“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17-18).

However they still ARE NOT convinced of His divinity, they ARE NOT convinced yet of the very teaching that He gives them in our current chapter from John’s Gospel even though they later claim to understand which we read as “His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God” (John 16:29-30). This dialogue IS in response to Jesus’ own pronouncement that tells them that what He has been teaching them IS by proverb, a word which we should understand in the same way as a parable; Jesus tells them “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father” (John 16:25). And we KNOW that they DO NOT understand nor DO they believe from the perspective of KNOWING the depth of the Truths that He told them….they ARE NOT convinced.

The second thing that we should try to see here IS found in the hidden lesson of the nature of Life and of the Soul, the True man. In this story Jesus takes up whatsoever form that He chooses as He IS unrecognized by the two disciples in the story; it IS here that Mark includes the idea that He appeared in a different from which we read as: “And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen” (Mark 16:11-14). When we combine this with His appearing and disappearing and other notes that tell us that He IS unrecognized, we should be able to see the teaching that He IS offering to them and to us: that the Soul, the Christ and the God Within, has complete control over the Life of the form; and we should KNOW that this IS a part of His fullness of grace. This fullness is the Master’s very nature which we read in the Apostle Paul’s words saying “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and this same should be seen in the Life of Peter who comes to that fullness of KNOWING and IS able to break chains and open doors. While these ideas are painted for us as that there IS the intercession of an angel, we should understand the greater reality that it IS Peter who accomplishes these things for which there IS NO explanation. We should view Peter’s “several ability” here in combination with the Truth of his healing Power, that “that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one” (Acts 5:15-16). In this IS the fullness of grace and the move the mountain KNOWING of the Apostle Peter.

The ideas that we see embedded in this story and the similar presentations of the appearing and disappearing of the Master after His resurrection in the other gospels ARE, in our view, intended to show us the realities that the Master IS presenting in this part of John’s Gospel; realities that should take us to see that Jesus relationship with God IS the same as our’s; that it IS the Christ Within and the God Within that ARE the reality of the man as they ARE the reality of the Christ. Much of this IS lost in the Master’s parabolic presentation of these Truths but this sense of loss IS only in our failure to realize what it IS that He IS saying. This is of course compounded by the glamour of Life as this afflicts the minds and the emotions of men and causes them to see their own view as the right view. It IS ONLY in the KNOWING that ALL things ARE according to the Truth of His words that men can break free of this glamour and the illusions formed by Life in this world. And so this IS the message of the Master’s words that we are discussing from John’s Gospel and which we repeat here again:

“At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:20-26).

The overriding idea here in these words IS NOT unlike the general message and tone of Jesus’ teaching: that we keep His words. This IS NOT a hidden part of the Master’s message, this part IS clear and plain as day yet the world does NOT see His meaning and it IS this Truth, that we keep His words, that IS the KEY to unlocking the mysteries that He presents for us in the parabolic language that teaches us of God and the Kingdom of God. We should try to see the relationship that IS presented between understanding His Truth about Himself, the Father and the Kingdom as these are interspersed with His words that show us the reality of both Love and keeping His words. Here, while the idea seems hard and even impossible to some, IS the greater Truth of the Great Commandment which tells us clearly that “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“. In this commandment we should see the reality of His words in our current chapter saying “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15) as well as His repeating of this as He explains just how our realization of God and Christ can come about in the Life of the man in the world. There IS a deafening roar in His words that “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him“; a pronouncement that IS lost in the clamor of Life and the dictates of the doctrines of men which believe that this relationship IS possible without heeding this Truth.

There IS a depth to this idea of Love that is far beyond the mental and the emotional attractions and attachments that ARE found in the world. While our view of this Love IS stated at the top of our essay as benevolence and GoodWill, there IS yet a deeper meaning as this concerns the Love of God, the Love that IS God. It IS this deeper meaning that IS implied in the Master’s words here and we should try to see an equally deep idea of Love as concerns our Love for God. This Love for God IS defined for us in the Great Commandment as that this Love reflects our Total commitment to God and to the things of God…that NO thing IS outside of the scope of this Love. This IS the meaning the words “all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“, this IS the totality of commitment, the totality of focus upon the things of God. We should see that in this sense of Love a man has NO choice but to “keep His words” and that the reality of a man’s DOING so IS the evidence of that Love. Here perhaps we can see the idea of Jesus former words to His apostles and to us through them….that “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15); can we see how that this idea of DOING IS the test of that Love so that the message IS that ‘if you say you Love me it will be shown in your keeping my words‘. And, as we have previously said, this idea IS the same as we see conveyed by the Master in Luke’s Gospel where we read that rhetorical question “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

In this we should see a part of that greater idea of Love as we express it toward the Master and toward God; that in this idea of Love IS the relationship between the disciple and His Lord….that this Love can be understood as our acknowledgement of that Lordship. It IS at the intersection of ALL these ideas that the True disciple IS found and it IS in our striving toward this lofty goal that we find the Life of the aspirant and the disciple by degree. We should remember here that the Eleven DO largely keep His words and that their shortcomings ARE NOT in this area of DOING except as they may miss the point from time to time; this we see in the Apostles James and John seeking the higher place and in the Life of Peter as he IS admonished by the Master. The apostles greater problem IS in their believing and NOT in their DOING as the carnal behavior appears much under their control… they have forsaken ALL and have followed the Master in His teachings and His example. The purpose here then IS in the value of His words as their ongoing teaching, that if they want to have the Presence of God and of the Christ in their lives, that they must remember that there IS a price to pay….their undivided attention to the things of God which IS evidenced by the reality that they ARE keeping His words. Perhaps a yet greater purpose can be found in the idea of their teaching of His words to us, that this idea of Love would become an integral part the understanding of future generations of True believers.

And what of the Love of God for them? What of the idea that “he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him” and what of the restatement of this idea as Jesus tells us that “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him“? It IS in with these ideas of the Love that God Has for us that we left the question a few posts back saying: Can we see this particular sense of Love as grace, as the realizations and revelations of the things of God to man?  If we can tie this Love to the actions that it incurs, if we can see that it IS with the Fathers Love that the reality of the Presence of God will come into one’s Life, we can likely come to understand much about this sense of Love that IS hidden in His words. It IS in this idea that the “Father will love” the man who keeps the words of the Master, the words of God, that men can receive the gift, the grace of His Presence, the Presence of the Father and the Son. And we should understand that this IS the “exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) of which the apostle speaks.

It IS in these ideas that we should see the reality of grace, that this IS the revelations and the realizations of divinity that come into the heart of the man whose focus IS upon the things of God. It IS in this way that a man can see God, that a man can have the Presence of God; as the Father and the Son here in these words and as the Holy Spirit as Jesus had previously taught them saying that “he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17). We should remember that this idea IS rendered by some as that the Comforter IS in you and this IS our understanding as realized by the man who keeps His words; and we should remember as well that Jesus precedes this part of His talk saying “If ye love me, keep my commandments“. And we should also note here how that the Master continues to treat this subject of the Comforter, as that this Spirit of God will be with the disciple as the outward flow of the divine nature to and through the mortal and carnal nature of the man in the world. We close here for today by repeating our comment from a few posts back saying: it IS the activity of this Love, the activity of this grace, that IS the Holy Spirit and this we see in Jesus words that show us the very idea of revelation as that the Comforter “shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you“. This is a part of the greater reality of the Life of the disciple and, by measure, the Life of the aspirant as well.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

We repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita, which goes well with our theme of the God Within, the Soul, which we see as the Christ Within and while this is good in the Christian world and is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God, we should also see in these words below that it does not matter what these divine ideas are called; that it matters not what we call this Inner Man, that he is the same in ALL, he is the Soul.

Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita

It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!