{"id":10492,"date":"2014-10-22T21:30:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T01:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/?p=10492"},"modified":"2014-10-24T17:02:18","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T21:02:18","slug":"in-the-words-of-jesus-part-1169","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/in-the-words-of-jesus-part-1169\/","title":{"rendered":"IN THE WORDS OF JESUS\u2013Part 1169"},"content":{"rendered":"

ON LOVE; PART\u00a0DCCLVIII<\/span><\/h2>\n
\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391<\/span><\/h6>\n

GoodWill\u00a0IS Love in Action<\/span><\/h2>\n
\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391<\/span><\/h6>\n
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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<\/em>” (Mark 12:29-31).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/em>” (Matthew 7:12).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the last several essays we have been trying to close out our discussion of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John which we have been studying. We originally came to these words from John’s Gospel to show the dynamic link between the concept of grace<\/em> and the Holy Spirit as we saw grace<\/em> as the flow of revelation<\/em><\/strong> and realization<\/strong><\/em> of Truth from God and the Holy Spirit as our use of this in the world of men. This use IS our expression<\/em><\/strong> of divine ideas in the world of men and it IS so much more than the noticeable acts of the apostles, and of men yet today, in healing and in effecting in some way their Life upon this Earth; this expression<\/strong><\/em> IS the reality of ALL divine thought as this flows forth through the man in the world. In the Life of Jesus this same idea; it IS the Spirit of God that He Truly IS that effects the changes that He wrought and this includes His teaching and His words and, in addition, His miracles.\u00a0His acts of healing, His multiplying of the loaves and His withering of the fig tree ARE ALL the most noticeable of His ‘feats’ while the very nature of His Life and His teaching and example ARE the more revealing of the Spirit of God in the Man who has “overcome the world<\/em>” (John 16:33). This IS the reality of grace<\/em> as the ability, through revelation<\/em><\/strong> and realization<\/strong><\/em> to the consciousness, of the man Jesus who came among us “full of grace and truth<\/em>” (John 1:14); for\u00a0“in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily<\/em>” (Colossians 2:9). And this IS the reality of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God through which the expression<\/em><\/strong> of His grace<\/em> shows us the Truth of Life in His example and in His teaching to us which includes the promise that we repeat again saying:<\/span><\/p>\n

“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<\/em>” (John 14:21-24).<\/span><\/p>\n

While we set out to show the relationship of grace<\/em> and the Holy Spirit, we came upon much more revelation<\/em><\/strong> from His words; first there IS the promise that we read above, the promise of His Presence which IS our own realization<\/em><\/strong> and revelation<\/strong><\/em> of Truth, and we came upon the idea of His Love as the greater reality of the Love of God, the Love that IS God, flowing forth into the Life of the man in the world from his own Soul. This Presence and this Love ARE the reality of His grace<\/em>; it IS in our realization<\/em> of these ideas that we can come to KNOW the Truth of Life and can see the revealed mysteries of the Kingdom of God. As we discussed in the last essay, the Truth of the Soul of ALL men IS the Truth of the Christ Within which the Apostle John shows us saying that this IS, that He IS, “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world<\/em>” (John 1:1-9). In the complexity of these ideas we must try to understand that it IS the Soul that IS the True man, that it IS the Soul that IS the Christ Within and that the Soul IS part and parcel of the Truth of God. In this we should see the idea that as a spark of the Divine Flame we ALL share in the same reality as DOES the Christ; we ARE ALL Souls expressing<\/strong><\/em> Life in form. Jesus came among us with the full ability to DO so, to express<\/em><\/strong> “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily<\/em>” and it IS His words and His example, it IS His promise as we read above, that will allow the rest of the human family to achieve this same expression.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The promise here IS of course His Presence which we should see as His grace, the grace<\/em> of God in the lives of men; the promise IS also His Love and the Love of the Father which, as we see in the totality of His words, IS the same Love and the same Presence in the Unity of God. This IS the promise of His grace<\/em> and it IS in the fullness of this Presence, this Love of God, that the promise of our own\u00a0expression<\/strong><\/em> of this grace<\/em> IS shown to us as He says: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do<\/em>” (John 14:12). We have then the promise of His grace<\/em> which IS our realization<\/em><\/strong> of His revelation<\/strong><\/em> of His Love and His Presence\u00a0and we have the promise that we too can express<\/em><\/strong> this grace<\/em> in the world of men. We must however remember and understand that there IS a price to pay, that to have the fullness of His grace<\/em> and the fullness of its expression<\/em><\/strong> we MUST keep His words<\/em>. We should understand here that words limit our ability to express the depth of these ideas and that this IS ALL in the natural action of Life for the man whose focus<\/em> IS Truly upon the things of God, the man who keeps His words<\/em>. And, in this idea of keeping His words<\/em> we must see the deeper ideas that ARE embedded in the Great Commandments that we have again at the top of our essay. First that there IS NO thing in one’s Life of more importance than God which IS found in the reality that ALL care for the self has been relinquished….that one’s thoughts, attitudes and actions ARE centered in the Truth of God; this IS the reality of “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<\/em>“: in this there IS no room for any other thing in Love. Here, as we briefly discussed again in the last essay, we have the problem of defining this Love for God that IS ALL consuming and here again we must try to see the reality as this IS expressed in the Master’s words from the fourteenth chapter of John above.\u00a0In His words there IS an equation of Love for Him and keeping His words<\/em> and this IS repeated twice in a positive way, once from a negative perspective and again as the general statement “If ye love me, keep my commandments<\/em>” (John 14:5) which we could view as His requirement for our expression<\/em><\/strong> of His grace<\/em> as the Holy Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

It IS in this equation created by the Master that we should see the definition of our Love for Him, that this Love IS that we keep His words<\/em> and, in the circular reference that He creates, we have the reality of this Love in the Life of man as that it IS His words\u00a0as stated in the Great Commandment above. We have then this idea of Love:\u00a0that we keep His words<\/em>\u00a0which He frames as “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me<\/em>” in the first instance and “If a man love me, he will keep my words<\/em>” in the second instance; these, combined with His saying that “If ye love me, keep my commandments<\/em>” should be enough to show us just what Love for God Truly IS. When we combine this idea with the idea of His Love for us as Souls and as Souls in form, which IS the reality of His Presence as we discussed in the last post, we have the reality of Love as the Presence of God, His grace,<\/em> in reciprocal exchange for our Love for Him which IS keeping His words<\/em>. If we can look at this idea of reciprocity and see reciprocal as it IS defined for us in today’s dictionary as:\u00a0something<\/span> that<\/span> is<\/span> reciprocal<\/span> to<\/span> something<\/span> else;<\/span> equivalent;<\/span>counterpart;<\/span> <\/em>complement<\/em> 7<\/span><\/sup>, we can likely understand the divine idea that IS presented here. First that there IS an equivalency between the Love that God gives men and the Love that a man should express<\/em><\/strong> and second we should see our own idea of degree; that it IS by the measure of our Love for God, the measure of our keeping His words<\/em>, that we can receive an\u00a0equal measure of His grace<\/em> and His Presence as the realization<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by\u00a0the man in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here then we should see that to keep His words<\/em> IS our Love for God and that to Love God IS His commandment, it IS His words. We should see here that it IS in the fullness of this that we have the fullness of His Presence \u00a0which IS our realization<\/em><\/strong> of the divine nature of the True man, the Soul, in his Life in this world. We should see as well the reality that it IS by measure, by degree, that we grow in our realization<\/em><\/strong> by the same measure by which we focus<\/em> upon the things of God; and in this IS the reality of the Master’s parables regarding the growth of the Kingdom of God which we must understand IS within. ALL of our spiritual lives then ARE tied to our expressing<\/strong> our divine nature and ALL of this expression<\/em><\/strong> IS tied to the grace<\/em> that we receive by this expression<\/em><\/strong> and it IS here that we can see the deeper Truths of the second part of the Great Commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”.<\/em>\u00a0This precept IS as much a part of keeping His words<\/em> as any other thing that the Master has said and, while this IS lost in the minds of many, this IS the HIGH Truth of Loving Him, the HIGH Truth of keeping His words,<\/em> which IS the price to pay for His Presence and His grace<\/em>. And perhaps it IS because of the nature of the world and the self centered attitude of most men who are lost in the vanity,<\/em> in the illusion<\/strong> and the glamour,<\/strong> of Life in this world, that makes the commandments of God so specific in this idea of Love. This idea of\u00a0“love thy neighbour<\/em>” IS a part of the overall Old Testament teaching on the relationships of men with one another; this idea of\u00a0“love thy neighbour<\/em>” IS the second of the Old Testament ideas that ARE elevated by the Christ to be the Great Commandments. Here we should see that this second IS included in the first as to Love Him IS to keep His words<\/em>\u00a0of which\u00a0this idea of\u00a0“love thy neighbour<\/em>” IS second only to the first. And this idea of\u00a0“love thy neighbour<\/em>” IS shown to us by the apostles who clarify and amplify the Master’s words as we read:<\/span><\/p>\n