ON LOVE; PART DCCXLVIII
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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 last essay we went deeper into the reality of Love as both the Way to the Kingdom of God and the result of one’s expression of Love in the world as it comes to a man in the form of grace. In this view we must try to see the Truth of Love and of grace in much the same way and understand that both ARE the reality of revelation and realization for the man in the world whose focus IS upon God and the things of God. And, in this view we must understand that it IS a man’s expression of such Love as the Master teaches us that IS at the heart of keeping His words. Again we come to a circular reference of sorts which should be seen in the reality that ALL of these spiritual ideas ARE linked together, that there IS NO True this and that which comes from God there IS ONLY the Power of the Spirit of God, the Spirit that IS God, as it moves through His Creation….to and through the True man who IS the God Within. Here we must try to remember the idea that man IS part and parcel of God, that there IS NO True separation possible between the Truth of man and the Truth of God and that what it IS that we see as our Life in this world IS based in the illusion and the glamour of Life in form or, as the Apostle Paul shows us, the vanity to which the whole of His creation has been subjected. It IS ONLY in the carnal minds of men that we appear to ourselves as that we ARE of this world. Let us look at some points regarding this idea:
- “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“(Romans 8:20-23).
- “as he is , so are we in this world” (1 John 4:16).
- “Behold , what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:1-3).
- “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).
No True understanding of Love as the expression of men in the world IS possible without a corresponding understanding of the Unity of men, a Unity that IS based in that Unity that we call God. In this idea we must be able to look past the physical form which we see from our points above IS NOT our reality; it IS but the form that we use and through which we ARE intended to express our divine nature; and this IS as the Christ used the body of Jesus….to express “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). In our realization of this Truth, that we ARE divine beings as IS the Christ and our God, comes our ability to see the Truth and to Love ALL which becomes the natural Way based in this Unity of ALL. We should remember here our own defining ideas regarding Love and grace, that these are intimately connected and that this idea of grace IS our very ability to realize and then to Love. And there IS NO delay here save that time it takes to train the personality away from the nurturing and the experiences of one’s years of Life in form. When one can Truly realize the Unity of Life and the divinity of man, he can then realize that there IS Unity in this Earth existence, Unity in this carnal Life, and that the ONLY differences among men other than appearance IS the degree of realization that each has accomplished, the degree of grace and Love as the Presence of God, that he has been able to flow into his consciousness as a man in this world. We ARE One Humanity, we live in One World and there IS and can be but One God; in this we should be able to see the reality of our Unity which can be understood as our Unity in Diversity from a Truly spiritual and a carnal perspective. Paul offers us these Truths in his speech at Athens as he instructs the Epicureans and of the Stoics, learned men and the philosophers of that day, in the reality of God and the Truth of this Unity from the perspective of men in form in this world; we read:
“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed , and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him , though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said , For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:24-28).
The Apostle Paul’s words here ARE his testimony to the nature of God and man, the brotherhood of man and the unity that is found in the diversity of man. That “God made of one blood all nations of men….that they should seek the Lord and find Him” IS the reality of Life in this world and while doctrine seeks to discount this idea and even accord Paul’s intent to the idea of Adam and Eve, that ALL are descendants, we should be able to see from the context of His words here, as well as in His sayings from Romans above, that man’s look back to the words of Genesis ARE NOT the apostle’s message. We can see a contrast of doctrinal ideas in these from John Gill and the Commentary Critical and Explanatory of the Whole Bible:
- John Gill tends toward the idea of ALL being born from Adam; we read: And hath made of one blood; That is, of one man’s blood; the Vulgate Latin version reads, “of one”; and the Arabic version of De Dieu reads, “of one man”; of Adam, the first parent of all mankind, and who had the blood of all men in his veins: hence the Jews say, “the first man was “the blood of the world”; and this by propagation has been derived from him, and communicated to all mankind……all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; for from Adam sprung a race of men, which multiplied on the face of the earth, and peopled the world before the flood; these being destroyed by the flood, and Noah and his family saved, his descendants were scattered all over the earth, and repeopled it…..8
- The Commentary Critical see this differently; we read: and hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth–Holding with the Old Testament teaching, that in the blood is the life ( Genesis 9:4 , Leviticus 17:11 , Deuteronomy 12:23 ), the apostle sees this life stream of the whole human race to be one, flowing from one source [BAUMGARTEN]. and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation–The apostle here opposes both Stoical Fate and Epicurean Chance, ascribing the periods and localities in which men and nations flourish to the sovereign will and prearrangements of a living God 8.
In these two views we can likely find most ALL doctrinal ideas on these words from Paul; what we should see however IS the sense of Unity that the apostle shows us, a Unity that reaches into the existence of men in the world. This existence IS NOT the True man but rather the body through which the True man, the Soul, lives and we should understand that the word rendered as nations here IS the same that IS rendered elsewhere as gentiles and which should be seen simply as men, ALL men, ALL groups, ALL races, ALL cultures……Here, even if we were to assume the doctrinal ideas of Genesis, we would be able to see this same reality in ALL men, that they ARE created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) and in this we would still have the apostles sense of Unity. The greater reality IS that there IS NO division of men other than those that are imposed in the minds of men and ALL such separation IS based in the sense of self which encumbers the personalities of men.
And this IS the reality as well of the apostle’s idea that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) and, while this seems absurd to the uninformed observer of the world, the Truth IS such. ALL men are made in the same way from the perspective that they ARE human bodies that ARE the vehicle for the expression of the Life of a Soul; and the disparity that we see IS based in the reality that some Souls ARE further along than others in their ability to express Life and in their ability to build suitable forms; God DOES NOT give one man to tools for worldly success while giving another the harshest of lives; this IS man’s DOING and, if it were not, then the saying that “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) in ALL its various forms IS false. When we can understand the realities of Life and the ways of karma as this effects the ongoing Life of the True man, the Soul, then we can better understand the great simplicity of the idea of Unity in Diversity. The Bhagavad Gîtâ, a Hindu Holy Book, frames this for us in this way:
Anyone who sees that all activities certainly in all respects are the result of material conditioning and that one as the soul is not the doer, sees perfectly. When one following that tries to see that the diversity of the living beings is resting in oneness and that it expanded to that reality, at that time one attains the Absolute of the Spirit.
Bhagavad Gîtâ 13:30-31
The key idea here IS Unity and the we should try to understand that this Unity, this Oneness, is effective on ALL levels of existence; ALL sense of separation IS based in the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world. In the end there ARE Not many ways to view the reality of the Master’s words on Love; in the reality of Love as we see it in the Great Commandments, ALL that IS needed to be said IS said; this IS His commandment. ALL else that we can surmise in regard to men and to Souls, that they ARE a Unity of Life, can ONLY make this commandment a bit easier to understand as when we can Truly see the Oneness that we ALL share, the ideas of separation will fade. In these ideas we should be able to see that NOT ONLY ARE ALL of these spiritual ideas in regard to the same idea of Life but that our very existence IS singular as well. We CAN NOT separate Love from grace and we CAN NOT separate the individual Soul from the Truth that he IS part and parcel of God; on every level of existence this IS True as the human form CAN NOT be separated from the whole of humanity in Life nor from the whole of this planetary existence in death.
There IS much to understand in the reality of Life and how that the intent of the Plan of God that we must understand IS NOT that individuals will spend their days outmaneuvering others to be better and to have more. The intent IS discipleship and the intent in to attain the Kingdom of God and ALL of the Master’s words ARE directed at our achieving that goal; this IS the essence of our study of the fourteenth chapter and this IS the reality of the Life of the Master as well which we should see clearly in the last part of our current selection which we repeat here again:
“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. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence” (John 14:26-31).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way |
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!
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
