Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCLX
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:13-18).
We closed the last post with our selection of sayings regarding Love as they appear in the words of the Master who tells us “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23) and it is our understanding and belief that the chiefest among ALL of His words are those on Love which He tells us in saying that “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 12:30-31). Now millions there are around this world who say that they Love Jesus or that they Love Christ or even that they Love God but who, at the same time DO NOT keep His words in this most basic commandment of Love. He tells us of this NEED to Love in so many ways and His words are echoed by His apostles in their epistles, yet mankind HAS NOT understood or, better, mankind has chosen to not understand the True import of His words, choosing instead to follow the ways of the man in the world who is trapped in the vanity to which the race is subjected, immersed in the illusion and the glamour of the Life of the self in the world. Perhaps much of the cause of this reality in the world yet today is found in the lack of understanding of just what this Love that the Master teaches us really IS as the world confuses this with the emotionally based love that one has for family or close persons, or even for pets, certain foods, cars, houses…..things of the world. And there are few that rightly teach this Love as the Master intended and which He does show us in His words albeit in His own parabolic way of speaking. His words do however go back to antiquity, to the early days of the Exodus and perhaps even before as the words the the Master uses above and which are repeated by His apostles ARE from those ancient times and while we can likely see that they have never been Truly observed we should note as well that there is an awareness of them in the hearts of the more religious persons in Jesus day. The words of Jehovah through Moses tell us:
- “but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. Ye shall keep my statutes” (Leviticus 19:18-19), This is the Old Testament source of these words stated in this way and they come at the end of a lengthy dissertation of how one should interact with his neighbor and we should understand the reality of a neighbor in its broadest sense and not in the limited way that leads to the dilution of the commandment. The Lexicon tells us this from the Hebrew perspective: friend, companion, fellow, another person friend, intimate; fellow, fellow-citizen, another person (weaker sense); other, another (reciprocal phrase) 2a and this is not unlike what we see in New Testament definitions.
- In the Master’s discussion on which commandments he should keep, He tells the rich young man of the gospels, “Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 19:18-19) and in this saying is but one example of how the Master elevates this commandment from Leviticus to a rank above that of the Ten Commandments which are the center of the Judeo-Christian religions. But further still, there is an apparent understanding of this importance by some of the Jewish religious community as we read “And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:25-28).
- It is from this point that the Master goes on to tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan which explains in rather clear terms the True nature of the neighbor as the stranger whom the Samaritan cares for only in a sense of GoodWill toward a man that he could have easily ignored as did the priest and the Levite who were supposed ‘men of God’. Our point here is the Old Testament understanding of Love and neighbor, while not being adhered to by the religious, was accepted and practiced as ACTIVE GoodWill by the Samaritan and while the idea of a Samaritan is today relegated to a one who helps and aids those in need, it SHOULD BE seen as it Truly IS, as a man expressing ACTIVE GoodWill.
The Master brings these ideas forward for us into the New Testament and the new dispensation and it is here that the intent is that the world would embrace them as a ready tool for spiritual advancement but, as history shows us, this HAS NOT been the case. In the Master’s words above we can see the reality of His elevating the importance of these words, that “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“, to a level of Great Importance in the lives of men as He tells us that “There is none other commandment greater than these“. And yet, more than 2000 years later this reality HAS NOT taken its proper effect; the commandment HAS NOT found its rightful place at the very top of the list. But this IS doctrine and the greater reality of these things must be found in the hearts and minds of men in the world and there ARE many who do see the reality of Jesus intent clearly. In this struggle for Love in the world, Right Love as ACTIVE GoodWill and not the emotional attachments that we think as love in the world of men, we must come to understand the True difference between these two ways of seeing this single word. Here we can attribute these different views of Love in a similar Light as man’s differing views of conscious Life itself and as the difference between God and mammon.
What we are saying here is that the view on Love by the man in the world is likely much in line with his view on his own spirituality from the perspective of the focus of his Life with those who are focused upon the self and the things of the world, on mammon if you will, are likely those same that DO NOT realize Love as what we are calling here ACTIVE GoodWill but see it rather as the emotionally based love of and for things and the people in the world. There IS NOT that recognition that we brought out in the last post of the ONENESS of mankind from the perspective of our basic SAMENESS as Souls struggling through Life in form. Conversely, the man that IS focused upon the things of God will see things from the perspective of the Soul and WILL realize the we are ALL the same as we see in the words that we gleaned from the sayings of the Buddha yesterday; words that tell us that we should “See yourself in others” and that “your brother is like you“. And, of course, there IS an infinite range of degrees of worldly Love versus ACTIVE GoodWill in the world today with the personal leaning toward the one or the other based in the focus of the man and, as we KNOW, it is this focus that reveals what is in the heart of a man. In this context we recall the Master’s words on treasure which we understand as what IS important to a man which IS a reflection of his focus and when Jesus says: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt , and where thieves break through and steal : 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt , and where thieves do not break through nor steal : 21 For where your treasure is , there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21) we should see much more than monetary treasures or possessions, we should see the entirety of one’s thoughts, attitudes and actions. When we see the heart of the man as his conscious awareness in the world and when we understand that the focus of ones Life determines the content of the consciousness as his the thoughts, attitudes and actions, we can better see how the idea of emotional love versus ACTIVE GoodWill falls into the overall of the right understanding of the Master’s use of the idea of treasure and can also see that this word is meant to signify what IS important to a man, what he DOES attend to.
We can say here then that when the man is focused totally in his Life in the world that he will see ONLY that worldly, emotional love that is in and of the world and when a man is focused totally upon God, the disciple if you will, then he will see the reality of that Love that IS God and that we are calling here ACTIVE GoodWill. In seeing this, we should also see that for the man who has entered that realm of duality, that realm where the aspirant IS found and where we find the man that IS striving to keep His words, there is a duality in his sense of Love as well. Here the man will recognize ACTIVE GoodWill but at the same time will yet be subject to the emotionally based loves of the world where family and friends and things of the world play their part. This latter place IS the place for the vast majority of who we can call men of GoodWill and here again it matters not what religion or culture of political philosophy one may subscribe to as there IS a fundamental realization of the ONENESS of the human family and a fundamental sense of disdain for the ways i which men conduct their interpersonal relationships both individually and corporately. This is necessarily a rather broad statement but we should not get fixated on any individual tendencies but rather on the idea of fundamental which acts as the basis for one’s future growth.
These ideas are ALL reflective of the Master’s words on Love and especially those that tell us that we should “love thy neighbour as thyself” and we should remember that the Master does give us some help in understanding His intent and His meanings regarding Love and He does so in what we have come to call the Golden Rule. Now this Golden Rule is well KNOWN and as we have previously discussed, there are versions of this ideal in most every culture and most every religious philosophy, yet it IS NOT widely practiced in this world of illusion and of glamour where a man is not only enmeshed in the the delusions of the self but the idea of the self is taught from childhood. The Golden Rule IS the antithesis of so much of the ‘for me’ attitudes of the masses of men when it IS rightly discerned and understood in the overall concept of that Love that the Master teaches us and which we are calling here ACTIVE GoodWill. There are two versions of the Golden Rule in the Gospels and they each do say the same thing although in slightly different terms:
- “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
- “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31)
There IS no real way to remove the reality of these sayings from the overall topic of Love. In Luke’s Gospel the verse above is sandwiched between the Master’s teachings on “Love your enemies” and the related thought of in the Master’s question saying: “if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye?” (Luke 6:27, 32). The position in Matthew’s Gospel is a bit different as it IS among the Master’s teachings on the giving nature of a God as He says: “how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? which is before our saying above and in this we should read that reality that if God gives to man without reservation and, as the Apostle Paul tells us, “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11), should we who would be disciples not act in this same way and should this not be the teachings of the church? Jesus tells us this after the Golden Rule in Matthew’s version: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:11, 13). Can we relate the Golden Rule to this idea of the strait gate? can we see that to do this Golden Rule is akin to what Paul tells us saying: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). From our perspective, speaking of Love in the practice of the Golden Rule, we say that even if there in no direct link intended, there should be one in our hearts as we should continue to interpret the Master’s words in the broadest possible way.
And perhaps this is the most difficult part of the world reaction to the teachings of the Master and His apostles; that although it IS KNOWN that these are filled with the Good, the Beautiful and the True and although there is naught in their words that is separatist in nature nor anything that can be remotely seen as hatred or promoting such, is that the tendency is to understand and interpret them in the narrowest possible way rather than the broadest. The Master teaches us, as we see above, that we should Love our neighbor yet we try to limit who can be considered as such. The Master gives us the Golden Rule and we see it only in a reciprocal way although His words are clearly saying that this IS a voluntary offering to ALL men. The Master tells us that in keeping His words we can show our Love for Him and for God yet we profess both while believing that what little we do according to His word will suffice. While these human reactions may be based in the illusion and the glamour, the vanity, of Life in this world it IS at the same time our duty to overcome them and this reality is woven throughout His words and there must be a place where we can, as a race begin to change this dynamic.
This change begins with us as aspirants to discipleship; it IS up to us to not only look at Life as the Master teaches us but at the same time we must be examples of “all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9) as these become our expression to the world of the fruit of the Spirit. It IS in doing this that we can perhaps play a small part in changing the attitude and the teachings of the world of men away from the self and the self in the world and toward that True Life of the Soul in form.
We are fast approaching the last of the Three Spiritual Festivals that we have been speaking about; Easter IS past, the Wesak Festival, the Festival of the Buddha, is past, and we are coming up on the Festival of the Christ or as it IS alternately called World Invocation Day or, our preferred name, The Festival of GoodWill. This year this Festival of the Christ is on May 24 which IS the day of the Full Moon of Gemini and while this day may be seen as heretical by the general Christian population, it IS nonetheless a day where we celebrate the Christ, we invoke His Love into greater play in the world of men and we center our thoughts upon GoodWill as a way of Life; in other words we see this day in the broadest possible way.
We did not get to our sayings from Paul that continue as the top of our essay and we will try to accomplish this in the next post. And we leave again our as our Quote of the Day the words of Paul to the Corinthians about Love and these thoughts and ideas must become our thoughts and ideas if we are to make True spiritual progress. We will continue with out thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect of God |
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.
Staying on the theme of Love we repeat again the sayings of the Apostle Paul that put this Love into perspective.
But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-13 (New King James Version)Regardless of our daily theme, the underlying theme of our posts and of this entire blog is Love. In these words from Paul we should be able to see the overriding importance of Love in the Life of each of us. This is a common theme throughout the gospels and the other writings of the apostles and a theme that is not nearly understood. In our theme today regarding Paul’s writings to the Romans and in the previous discussions on them we seek to impart the better understanding of the reality of Life, the Life of the True man as the Christ Within, the Soul, as it is from this perspective that we can gain that revelation of Truth and, as Paul says above, be free from the condemnation and the vanity of Life in form, free from the illusion and the glamour. We repeat here what we said about these verses in a prior post:
Today’s Quote of the Day from the Apostle Paul is his testimony to the power of Love. After speaking at length about the gifts of the Spirit that one should desire in order to be of service to the Lord, he says plainly that Love is a more excellent way. Love in the context of these verses is not the sentimental or affectionate kind that we ordinarily think of but rather 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. This defining of Love is covered in some depth in a previous post; In the Words of Jesus part 47.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 2a Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
