IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1198

ON LOVE; PART DCCLXXXVII

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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)

As we continued our discussion yesterday of the words of the Apostle John regarding Love, the Presence of God and keeping His words, we noted again the way that he uses the idea of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, in his words describing the Presence of God in one’s Life. We should remember here that the Master also ties these ideas together for us in the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. While Jesus DOES NOT give us much in defining the nature of this Spirit, we can discern through His language that He IS speaking of the same idea of the Presence of God which we understand as one’s realization of that Presence; a realization which IS the grace of God that comes to a man by measure according to that man’s expression of His Love to the world. It IS essentially this expression of Love that IS keeping His words and while this IS NOT so painted by the many different Christian doctrines, this IS the reality of Jesus’ words and John’s clarifying and amplifying words saying:

“whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come ; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 3:17-24, 4:1-6).

As we have been discussing, much of the completeness of the intent of the Master IS embodied in John’s words above where we find the reality of Love and a caution that we DO Love “not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” which IS yet the bane of much of the world which talks much about Love and Charity but fails in regard to the teachings of the Master regarding Love. The Truth that it IS one’s expression of Love that IS the reality of keeping His words is sorely missed in the Christian world and this because the Master’s words on Love have been diluted and changed to suit the carnal mind of the man in the world; a change that IS formed in the carnal minds of those who had taken authority in the early days of the church. We should try to see John’s cautions that follow in our selection above as that they ARE directed to those who would hear the words of those who had taken authority rather than the authorities themselves as it IS these men who were playing their role in diluting and changing the Master’s intent to suit the ways of men. We should understand here that this IS NOT an accusation of wrongdoing on the part of the early Church Fathers but merely an acknowledgement of their humanity, that their way of viewing the precepts of the Master was according to the ways of men whose vision of Life was the same as their predecessors; the scribes and the Pharisees also diluted and changed the word of God to suit the ways of men and, as we have said, the same words on this that Jesus uses against the Jews ARE intended against ALL who succeed them in the same carnal ways.

This IS simply the ways of men and while we may have a more modern approach today, the same tendency to view Life as that it IS in this world prevails; men look to their benefit and their comfort as men in the world and some Truly believe that it IS the will of God that they should prosper. But Jesus paints a different picture of this as DOES His apostles as they show us the dichotomy of carnal living as it IS opposed to the spiritual Life and there ARE likely many who sensed or even saw the Truth in the early days as there ARE likely many who sense this same today. The opposition however IS strong, the ways of the world are the more popular among men and, because this includes men that have taken authority with their view of spiritual matters, the masses of men ARE instructed in their ways while those who see the greater Truth are drowned out. And there ARE many choices regarding such instruction as there ARE many denominational choices, choices of sects and even choices of religion that Men make; some choose what they may see as closer to God while others will choose what they see as better cover for their own view of Life. This IS the apostle’s caution and it IS NOT to those who promulgate doctrine but to those who would listen to them and learn. ALL may find their place in this grouping at some stage in their lives as those who have authority today, ALL who ARE the teachers of today, were the students of the past who DID NOT see the ideas presented by the apostle above and who have accepted that the idea that “many false prophets are gone out into the world” IS NOT in regard to their own teachers who themselves ARE “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9).

And John DOES offer us the idea of self examination, the idea that if we can look past the mental and emotional ways of the personality in the world, we can see into our own hearts, our own conscience and consciousness, and KNOW that we ARE keeping His words as He intended them to be kept and which John largely sees in our expression of Love. But most men DO NOT look into their conscience as they confuse the carnal mind for the spiritual and this IS the same reality that plagued the Pharisee and the other religious authorities in Jesus’ day. When, however, a man of True spiritual intent looks at the Master’s words against the religious interpretation of them, he will see in his own heart how the reality of the apostle’s words saying: “if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things” Truly works our in one’s Life. Here IS our vision of the God Within, the Truth of one’s consciousness that IS apart for the world; here IS the opportunity for men to see the Truth and to react to it, a reaction which must per force include one’s own admission that he had been deceived. Again we should try to see the deeper ideas here; that it IS in the DOING, in keeping His words, that the Truth lies; it IS in keeping His words that “our heart condemn us not” and it IS in this light that we should see the Master’s words and the words of the Apostle James who tells us “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22)”. This IS the great deception and this IS a Truth that IS addressed by the Master in terms that ARE NOT understood by the man who DOES NOT see past his own sense of doctrine; we read again:

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” Matthew 7:21-23).

This sense of Truth that we are presenting here IS not accepted by the men who ARE “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” nor ARE they likely to be accepted by the student who follows them. In this sense we ARE likely outcasts and ARE likely seen as among those who speak against Christ because we speak against their doctrines. While we DO NOT wish to offend any, there IS a need for the Truth of the Master’s words and while the reader may take those words above and accord them to others who ARE perhaps NOT Christian according to their sense, the reality IS that they ARE addressed to ALL men who call Him Lord and who DO NOT “the will of my Father which is in heaven“…..a will that begins with the Great Commandments that we have again at the top of our essay. And this IS the reality of the Apostle Luke’s view of this same idea which we have above from according to Matthew; Luke simply reports the Master’s rhetorical question which asks plainly “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Can we see the poignant approach of both of these apostles’ presentations of Jesus intent? And it IS here that Truth and doctrines depart; the Master says keep His words while doctrines DO NOT see the reality of this yet account those who follow their doctrines as being in the ‘will of God’; it IS in the complexity of this idea of keeping His words that men CAN NOT see their way and it IS in this that they choose what they see as better cover for their own view of Life. This IS the simply the ways of men; the way of illusion and of glamour and this IS the result of the greater Truth that the True man, the Soul, IS “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20).

It IS in this view that much sense can be made of the ways of men, not Christian men ONLY but ALL men, as they are deluded by the world and the ways of the world as they lose their sense of the Truth of their own identity through their own nurturing and experience. And the teachings of the Master and His apostles, the teachings of ALL True religious leaders, should be able to bring men out of this sense of spiritual malaise as they try to awaken the Inner man, the Soul, the Christ Within, and allow him to become the expression of Life in this world. And it IS this expression that IS the reality of that strait gate; it IS one’s realization of the Presence of God, his realization of the Christ Within, that IS the reality of the Master’s words saying:

“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).

It IS the man who keeps His words that has the Presence of God, the realization of the Christ Within, and it IS in this realization that one will express the spiritual Truths in his own Life in this world. This IS the same idea that John seeks to impart to us in his saying that “he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us” and, when we can understand that this Spirit IS the Holy Spirit and that this IS the Presence of God, ALL of this can make greater sense. While the doctrinal view of the apostle’s words above get caught up in the idea of confession and the common understanding of believing, the reality of both of these IS the same as John’s previous saying that “we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight“. To account the idea here of commandment to the common understanding of believing from the next saying that “this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment” IS short sighted and ignores the many other words that the apostle gives us including the following idea that we should “love one another, as he gave us commandment“.

As the apostle continues in his words we should try to see the dynamic link of these affirmative ideas that “we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight“; it IS in this light that the following idea, that “we should believe“, IS found even if only from the view that to believe that Jesus IS Lord IS to do as He says. As John continues with the idea of confession we should see the same reality in regard to those to whom we would look for such confession and see that if a man should confess the Master, he would be the man who keeps His words and not one who merely acknowledges Him as the Son of God. It IS in this regard that the apostle gives us a test that we can apply to those who take authority and who teach us but this test IS overwhelmed by those very persons who take authority. Here the Truly spiritual man, the man who keeps His words and who John defines saying “Ye are of God, little children“, CAN see this reality; but the average man who looks to those who take authority although they may fail keep His words will remain lost in this malaise; few will ever recognize the True Way of the “strait gate” which IS the Way of Repentance and Transformation.

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