{"id":10821,"date":"2015-01-15T17:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T22:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/?p=10821"},"modified":"2015-01-15T19:37:57","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T00:37:57","slug":"in-the-words-of-jesus-part-1214","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/15\/in-the-words-of-jesus-part-1214\/","title":{"rendered":"IN THE WORDS OF JESUS\u2013Part 1214"},"content":{"rendered":"

ON LOVE; PART\u00a0DCCCIII<\/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
\n

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. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape<\/em> which IS generally rendered as Love,\u00a0we 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\u00a0of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our\u00a0One God<\/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

We are back to our writing after a brief hiatus during which we moved our base across the country. While we will keep with our theme of the Truth of the grace<\/em> of God and the reality of the Master’s words on how to attain that grace<\/em>, we will take a brief break to address two ideas that came to us from the Verse\u00a0of the Day that we read daily from biblegateway.com<\/a>. These ideas ARE NOT unrelated to the theme of grace<\/em> as we have been presenting this, as ALL things that come from God and from and through the God and the Christ within every man, his own Soul. Grace<\/em> IS the Light of the Soul as it IS directed into the waking consciousness of the man in the world and grace<\/em> IS the impetus to that Transformation<\/em><\/strong> that brings a man to the fullness of the Presence of God and to the Truth of the Kingdom of God in his life in this world. While this DOES happen by measure, it IS ever the fullness that we should seek and it IS by our expression<\/em><\/strong> of grace<\/em> to the world of men that we grow in this fullness. When we can understand that the grace<\/em> of God IS our own revelation<\/em> <\/strong>and realization<\/em><\/strong> of His Presence in our lives, we can come to a greater understanding of the mysteries of Life and\u00a0it IS in our realization<\/em><\/strong> of these Truths that we continue to grow in His word as we leave off our focus<\/em> upon the carnal and the bane.<\/p>\n

It IS this change of focus<\/em> that IS our Transformation<\/em><\/strong> and we should ever remember that our ability to Transform<\/strong><\/em> is founded in the reality of Repentance<\/em><\/strong>, that decision to change the focus<\/em> of one’s Life away from the self and the things of the world and onto the things of God. It Is the reality of His Presence in one’s Life that IS His grace<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0the revelation<\/em><\/strong> of that Presence and the realization<\/em><\/strong> of this IS reflected in the Life of the man in the world as his expression<\/em><\/strong>, the expression<\/em><\/strong> of the Truth of keeping His words<\/em>. And this IS as He tells us in His words from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John which we have been discussing now over many essays and which we repeat here again as it IS in these words that the great KEY to the Kingdom of God can be found; we read again:<\/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.\u00a0Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?\u00a0Jesus 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.\u00a0He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father\u2019s which sent me<\/em>”\u00a0(John 14:21-24).<\/span><\/p>\n

We should remember why we show this whole dialogue between the Master and the Apostle Judas. Judas, representing the apostles, DOES NOT understand the reality of the Presence of God in his own Life although, by way of being an apostle, he has that Presence. In this we should see the idea that if this IS difficult to understand for the man who IS in His Presence, how more difficult it can be for the man looking in from the outside, the man who IS NOT keeping His words<\/em>. And we should see as well that Jesus answer to Judas’ question regarding His Presence IS but a repetition of His original saying albeit a bit more complete as it includes the deeper reality of the Presence of the Father and the Son. While the value of the idea appears lost on the world of men, while it is easily seen as the True Way to the Kingdom of God, men DO NOT or choose NOT to see the deeper reality of this idea even as it IS woven throughout the Master’s teachings and the clarifying and amplifying teachings of His apostles. Men DO NOT see\u00a0the overriding reality, that the great KEY to ALL spiritual endeavor IS found in the reality of keeping His words<\/em>; it IS by this that we show our Love for God and for our fellow man as we read in the Great Commandment that we have again at the top of our essay. \u00a0As we have been discussing in our other selections from the Epistle of John, this sense of Love IS the realty of keeping His words<\/em> and we should understand that our expression<\/em><\/strong> of this Love IS dependent upon our ability to take our focus<\/em> off of the self and the things of the self; it IS only in this way that we can understand and see the ease of so doing as the Apostle John shows us saying:<\/p>\n

“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.\u00a0By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.\u00a0For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous<\/em>” (1 John 5:1-3).<\/p>\n

While much of doctrines contort these words to suit their own understanding of believing<\/em>, the reality remains:\u00a0if a man Loves God then he must Love His brother. And while much of doctrines also contort this idea of Love as to apply to other Christians, the reality remains that the Truth of this Love IS\u00a0inextricably tied to keeping His words<\/em> which the apostle shows us as the Truth of our Love for God, a Truth that IS “not grievous<\/em>“. And John goes to great lengths to show us this Truth which must be seen in the context of the Master’s own words on Love which we see in the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule and NOT in the doctrinal context of fellow Christians. We should clearly see the apostle’s intent though the parabolic nature of\u00a0his words as he tells us “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar<\/em>” (1 John 4:20); it IS here that we should again see that link between our Love for ALL men and the reality\u00a0that “we keep his commandments<\/em>“. And this IS our\u00a0segue to those ideas from the Verse of the Day which we read as:<\/p>\n