ON LOVE; PART DCCCXIII
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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. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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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 left our current topic of grace, as it IS manifest in the Life of the man whose focus IS upon the things of God, as the revelations and the realizations in his consciousness of the Truth of the Presences of God which IS the Presence of divine Power in his Life. While we left this generalized topic, we DID NOT leave the precursor of this Presence in one’s Life as we focused our attention on Love as the ultimate factor in a man’s ability to keep the Master’s words as well as the words of God that the Master reinforces with His own teaching. In the reality of Jesus words which we have been carrying in our essays since we discovered their depth as we studied the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, we have this ultimate reality and the understanding that this grace, this Presence of God in one’s Life, IS the reciprocal and natural action of living in the Word of God. As we read Jesus’ words again we should see that while the whole of this idea of a quid pro quo IS denied by most ALL doctrines, His words themselves CAN NOT be disputed when viewed in the Light of Day by the man who can Truly understand the Apostle Paul’s words saying “cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Romans 13:12). We read the Master’s words again:
“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” (John 14:21-24).
The clarity here IS deafening and it follows upon the most simple Truth which the Master frames for us saying “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15); in these words from Jesus we should see ONLY the reality that one CAN NOT Love Him, that one CAN NOT Love God, if he DOES NOT keep His words and when we add this to the subsequent sayings above, we should be able to clearly see the grace of God, the Presence of God, as it comes to the man who Truly Loves Him. We should see as well that there IS NO separation between His words and the Father’s as there IS NO separation between the Father and the Son whose Presence IS a singular event as the Spirit that IS God in one’s Life. The great reality here in Jesus words should serve to confirm His own earlier words saying “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), words that ARE unfortunately misunderstood as they ARE doctrinally applied. It IS in the carnal mind of those men who define and teach doctrines that the misplaced ideas are founded; the carnal mind sees only from the perspective of men in this world as they try to define the divine. And this IS NOT a condemnation of those who define and teach doctrine, this IS rather a realization that the minds of men are firmly fixed upon the things of the world except as they can DO according to the Master’s words that we read above, that they can keep His words as He has offered them to us. It IS the man “that hath my commandments, and keepeth them” who will have the Presence of God and the grace that this brings which IS the realizations of the deeper Truths that ARE NOT seen by the “natural man“, by the man whose Life IS NOT fixed upon the things of God.
These ARE difficult sayings to hear for the man who believes that by his own doctrine he has found the Truth and salvation and perhaps it IS in the reality of the many thousands of different doctrinal views of the ONE Truth that such a man can begin to see how that he IS yet in the thralls of the carnal mind as he supports and defends his own view against the views of others. This IS the reality of glamour and of the ways of men who live in the illusions of Life in this world; it IS this sense of glamour and illusion that Paul calls vanity as he tells us that “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Romans 8:20). It IS this vanity that keeps men believing in what they see and feel and think rather than the True promptings of their own Souls to the Good, the Beautiful and the True….the True prompting that, when heeded, brings the Presence of God into one’s Life. It IS unfortunate that so many who ARE yet subjected to this vanity, to this illusion and glamour, mistake the carnal things that they may see and feel and think for the reality of the Presence of God in their lives. It IS unfortunate that so many DO NOT see the reality of the Master’s words saying “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” and understand that the reciprocal action IS the Way of Truth.
We should remember here that this Presence comes upon a man in a most gradual fashion and it IS this that the Master teaches us in His slow and methodical way of expressing ever deeper Truths through His words. It IS when we can let His words and the words of His apostles build to the final reality of discipleship and being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God that we can Truly understand the Way and understand that it IS the very nature of God that the Truly spiritual man will express to the world of men…..and this expression IS Love and IS keeping His words. We see this gradual realization of the ultimate Truths in the lives of the Eleven as the Presence of God, as their own realization of the Truth, grows in them and, while the Master IS their most direct teacher, we should understand the it IS their own realizations of the revelations that He unlocks for them that IS their grace. We have ofttimes said that the most detailed view of the Life of an apostle IS found in the many words from the gospels and from the Book of Acts regarding the Apostle Peter and we should ever remember that those things in Peter’s Life that with which the Master finds fault ARE yet beyond our True understanding and depict for us the apostle’s road to that Perfection of which Jesus says “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
It IS in the Master’s preparing the Twelve and then the Eleven for His own departure from their physical presence that we find these ideas from the fourteenth chapter; it IS here that Jesus shows them the reality of their own potential Power which comes upon them in keeping His words. While doctrines bandy about the ideas behind Jesus’ and the Apostle John’s use of the word rendered as believe, we must come to see the deeper ideas that ARE found in this Greek word pisteuo and the kindred word pistis which IS generally rendered as faith. In most common sense we should see that the simple idea of believing CAN NOT be the issue as the Master tells us “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12), and while many detract from the Master’s intent in saying this, the reality IS found in our sayings above, in the Presence of God in one’s Life. It IS this Presence, this grace that comes to the man who can keep His words and Love, that can DO such “greater works” and it IS in this context that we should understand the Truth that “without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). And we should remember here that the Master’s teaching to His Eleven IS yet parabolic and intended to be realized ONLY by those who ARE ready for the greater Truths and that this same dynamic comes forward in time to us today; it IS in this light that we should understand the steady growth of our own realizations of Truth as we find and understand ever more from His words.
And it IS in this idea of preparing the Eleven that Jesus shows them the reality of the Presence of God and the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, which will come into their lives as these same realizations. While the Master tells them that “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:15-18), much of His meaning IS NOT seen. As Jesus tells them that “ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” we should see the greater realities; first that the Holy Spirit IS already with them and a part of their own realization of Truth, and second that there IS a dynamic relationship between He Himself and this Presence of the Spirit that IS God which He shows them as His own Presence saying “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you“. It IS here also that Jesus reveals the dynamic relationship between He and the Father and the disciple of the Lord saying “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” It IS these ideas that ARE among those that must be “spiritually discerned” and it IS in this reality that Paul tells us of the “natural man” who DOES NOT see these Truths, the man who ONLY sees through the carnally focused mind; we read again: “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
We ARE ALL “natural men” until we come to the realization of His Presence and, while many attest to having this grace in their lives, it IS only those who DO express these realizations in Love and in keeping His words that Truly DO. It IS in this context that we should understand Jesus words saying “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8); it IS in this context that we should see the deeper reality of His words that “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). When we can understand that this fruit IS the “fruit of the Spirt” which Paul defines for us, we can better understand that it IS this same Holy Spirit that IS found in the Presence of the Father and the Son in one’s Life. And we can better understand the Unity of God and see the relationships that we carry below in our chart of the Aspects of God in a clearer Light. While even our own view of the Godhead separates God into Aspects, the reality IS that there IS ONLY Unity; One God operating through the manifestation of His Will, His Love and His activity in the world of men and it IS these ideas that must be understood in a most spiritual way….these ideas CAN NOT be adequately expressed by the minds of men save in the True sense of spiritual discernment. Yet so many who DO NOT have such fruit as their own expression of divinity claim to KNOW the Truth of God.
Jesus tells us several things about the Holy Spirit that should be see in the parabolic way that they ARE presented and we should see that in the Master’s presentation of these ideas to the Eleven there are several points where seemingly intentional confusion can be found. First is in the idea we cite above where we see that the Father will send the Spirit, the Comforter, while at the same time He shows them that “ye know him; for he dwelleth with you“; here we must also note the involvement of the Christ as He concludes in saying “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you“. We then have Jesus words saying that the Holy Ghost comes in His Name and this we should understand in the reality of His Person, in the reality of what His Name represents; we read: “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 14:25-26). Here we should see that the Presence of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, will replace the actual Presence of the Master in their lives; here we should remember what He earlier said as well, that “ye know him; for he dwelleth with you” as in this we can sense the dynamic relationship of the Presence of God that IS already with them, being realized as the Holy Spirit in their lives. Further on we read “when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” (John 15:26); here we find that the Holy Spirit IS sent from the Son while above He IS sent by the Father. The deeper idea here IS in their own realization of His Presence which will confirm for them the deeper Truths. It IS at the intersection of ALL of these ideas about the Holy Spirit that we should be able to see that this IS the Presence of God in the Life of the man whose focus IS upon the things of God….the man who strives to keep His words.
Finally we have the Master’s words in our current selection below; here we see yet another view of the Spirit of Truth as the realization of the greater Truths of God and of Life. When His Presence, the Presence of God, IS realized by the man in the world, “he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come“. In this we should try to see the separation of the carnal from the divine….that the Spirit of Truth will be ONLY concerned with the things of God and that the focus of the man will NOT be on his own thoughts and attitudes; “he shall not speak of himself” but of the things of God. We read our selection again:
“These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh , that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father” (John 16:1-16).
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.
Repeating a Quote of the Day from the past that has some significance in relation to what we are discussing here, that the Kingdom of God and therefore God is within us ALL and that it IS His Presence which a man realizes by measure as he begins his journey to the Kingdom of God. Here Lord Tennyson poetically tells us just how close God Truly IS and how it is that we touch Him
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears,
and Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing,
and nearer than hands and feet.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–1892)
From the poem The Higher Pantheism which puts forth the authors spiritual belief. Whether we agree with him or not, the quote if spiritually perfect for all of Christianity as well as any other world religion.
The thought behind the idea above IS NOT unlike that which we have been carrying as our Quote of the Day for many essays; It IS in the closeness that Lord Tennyson shows us that we should see the idea that “God dwells in the inner part of every man” which we read in the previous Quote of the Day. For us this saying and the previous one show us the closeness of the spiritual self to the Father and then too the closeness of the spiritual self with the personality of man. Men may like to think of God as something outside and above but the reality, as we have seen in so many of the sayings of the Master, is that God is with us and in us and we need only to let ourselves be drawn and to focus upon Him. And, if we can use these words from the Gospel of Thomas here we can perhaps see much: “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father“
