IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1181

ON LOVE; PART DCCLXX

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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 continued with our look at the idea of Love, its spiritual Power and its reality as the Presence of God in the Life of the man who can pay the price of keeping His words. We should try to see here that this price IS NOT so direct as it may seem, we should understand that this reality of keeping His words comes rather naturally to the man who can change the focus of his Life from the self and the cares of the self to the things of God. This IS the True price, the true cost of attaining His Presence and it IS this reality that IS the actual quid pro quo that we find in the Master’s words below. In Jesus’ words the link between the Presence of God and His Love makes these the same but we should not confuse this Love with that global sense of Love that ALL men DO have; the reality of the God Within and the Christ Within IS universal while the individual sense of Love, which IS His grace, IS one’s realization of this global Truth. In this light we should see His Presence as the revelation of His Love and His grace to the consciousness of men and the realization of His Presence as the taking up of this reality by the man in the world, a realization that must per force result in the activity of the spiritual man in the world, the activity that IS the Holy Spirit. We should see in the framing of the Master’s words below, and the response from the Apostle Judas, that the reality of Jesus words that “I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” IS the revelation of Himself to in the consciousness of the man who “hath my commandments, and keepeth them“; and this IS rendered as reveal in several translations although perhaps NOT in the same way that we see this. W read our sayings from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John 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).

On the global scale we should see the Love of God in the Advent of the Master and in the more general ideas that the Master offers us as He tells us of the Providence of God and how that, speaking of the Father, “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45) and other such sayings in the gospels. And we see this global sense of Love and grace and of His Presence in the words of the Apostle John who tells us that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (1 John 3:16). The greater part of this idea of grace, the individual sense of it, however IS tied up in the mysteries of Life, mysteries that persist yet today and which ARE ONLY revealed to the man whose focus IS on the things of God; it IS a part of this mystery that the Apostle Paul reveals to those who can see it in his saying that: “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:25-27). While there IS much doctrinal confusion regarding the idea of saints and the Truth that spiritual revelation comes ONLY to those who Truly strive to keep His words, as well as the meaning of gentiles and the Truth of the Christ Within, these words shows us the reality of individual Presence of God which IS ONLY revealed to those who seek and ask and accept the ideas behind the Truth of Love.

It IS the individual sense of grace IS that must be sought after and asked for and on this we read Jesus words saying: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him” (Matthew 7:7-11). We should understand that these ideas of asking and seeking and knocking ARE but carnal representations of the reality of our change of focus as NO one of these ideas will work ONLY in the carnal sense. There must be the decision to change the course of one’s Life and to move one’s sense of Love away from the emotional and mental attraction and attachment to things of the world and onto the things of God; this IS of course the essence of that Repentance which the Master teaches. We should understand here that the “good things” that flow from God ARE His grace, His Love and, as we see in the sayings from John’s Gospel above, His Presence, and here we should remember that this same idea IS reported by the Apostle Luke in a much more revealing way which we read as: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). Can we see the reality here of the “good things“, that the grace of God, His Love and His gifts, ARE NOT carnal but spiritual and can we see how that this reality comes through to us in the words from Paul that we discussed in the last essay and that we have been repeating over the last reveal posts:

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But 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 2:12-14).

It IS in this light that we should see the idea of evil in the Master’s words above as Jesus addresses the men in the world saying: “If ye then, being evil“. This idea of evil and Paul’s idea of the “spirit of the world” have essentially the same meaning as both of these refer to the ways of men in this world where they ARE “made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20) which we understand as the illusion and the glamour that color the minds of men and block out the Light of the Soul. Evil, like sin, IS reference to the thoughts, the attitudes and the actions of men being of and for the self and the interests of the self in this world, and NOT any specific wrong that a man can DO. It IS in this light that we understand the reality that ALL men in this world ARE in sin by some degree and that this state persists until that time where we can overcome which we read of in our selection from John’s Epistle:

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect , that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we now that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 4:7-5:5).

Here, in this manifesto on Love, the apostle shows us the importance of, and the reality of, Love as the KEY to ALL things Spiritual and, in the end of our selection, he shows us the reality of our ability to overcome, that this IS tied to being “born of God” and how that being “born of God” IS the result of our ability to Love as the Master teaches us. In this sense of overcoming we can find the better understanding of the Master’s statement that seemingly paints ALL men as evil, that this IS NOT evil as this IS commonly understood but IS rather the Truth that men’s focus IS upon the things of the world. And we should NOT be taken away by the ideas of faith, believing and confession that ARE sprinkled through the apostle’s words as these must NOT take away from the value of Love. These ancillary ideas should be taken in the way that they ARE presented. If we believe that Jesus IS the Son of God then we ought to DO as He tells us; in this idea of believing we should see the reality of KNOWING and in this KNOWING we should see our own reflection in Jesus’ rhetorical question that asks: “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). We should see the apostles reference to confession in much the same way; we should understand this idea of confession has the same result as that “we love one another” and this should be a KEY to our understanding of this idea. To confess the Master IS to see Him as Lord and do keep His words and, paramount in this idea of keeping His words IS the reality of Love. Previously in our blog, in In the Words of Jesus part 1171, we cited Vincent’s ideas on this word that IS rendered as confession and, in short form, this IS NOT what IS generally understood; like believing, this idea of confession IS NOT mere acknowledgement; Mr Vincent tells us that this Greek word homologeo: implies identification of the confessor with the confessed, and thus takes confession out of the category of mere formal or verbal acknowledgment ⁴. And, while we often speak about the depth that should be seen in the word faith, we should repeat again that this IS the reality of KNOWING as we discern from the Master’s words on the “faith as a grain of mustard seed“; how that such faith, such KNOWING and totality of revelation, can allow the True disciple the ability to “say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20).

In these ideas is the reality of faith, of believing and of confession as these ARE presented by John and, in the whole of this selection these ARE ALL tied to Love, to our expression of Love which IS the ultimate reality of keeping His words. Here again we must understand the nature of this Love, that this IS NOT the emotional and the mental attractions and attachments to the thing so of the world but that this IS that state of mind where we see ALL men equally and in the same way that we see ourselves and that we treat ALL men as we would be treated by others. And this DOES NOT come to us from the carnal mind but rather this IS the result of that Transformation of the carnal man into the spiritual man, the man who can express, by degree, his own divine nature. It IS the prompting of the Soul that begins this Transformation with the reality of Repentance and it IS this Transformation that IS the result of the ever increasing measure of grace that IS revealed through the Life of the man in the world whose focus has been changed to the things of God. It IS in this that we should see the reality of the price that must be paid for the Presence of God in one’s Life, that while this price IS painted for us as keeping His words, it IS our focus upon the things of God that gives us this ability. 

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

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888