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Matthew 22:36-40 reads like
this:
“Master, which
is the great commandment in
the law?/Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind./This is the
first and great commandment./
And the second is like unto
it. Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself./ On
these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets."
Paul's words recorded in
Romans 8:28 tell us what happens
when we succeed in fulfilling the
commandments! "And we know that
all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to
his purpose."
Paul is speaking of
predestination in the last part
of the statement, believing that
such persons are the ones who
will love God. But today we have
come to realize - in the
evolution of humankind's
religious/philosophical thought -
that all of us are predestined to
love God and to become perfect as
our Father in heaven is perfect,
quoting Jesus. But the timing is
up to us - you and me.
It turns out that what is
involved here is the evolution of
knowing God so that we can love
God with all that we are!
To know God is to be in love
with all there is, unmanifest and
manifest, God as Creator and
creative and expressing in all
that we call life or the
universe. I John 4:8, "He that
loveth not knoweth not God, for
God is love." So when we love
God, we cannot not love anybody
or anything! As I continue to
define God in my website pieces,
God is everything and everybody.
To love God is to love
everything, to see the good - God
at work in everything. The
situation may look bad, but God
is not absent in whatever or
wherever the situation is!
Situation and site come from the
same derivation, and God is at
every site in the universe. God
is everything and everybody,
meaning the cause, the source,
and the reality of it and in
it!
Charles Fillmore, co-founder
of Unity, writes that love is the
universal solvent, the answer to
every need! To love God in the
sense that we are here speaking
of, is to be a loving person. But
here we are thinking of a state
of consciousness way beyond that
of someone we might normally call
a loving person. The results Paul
refers to depend on the degree to
which this state of consciousness
has developed. You and I may feel
that, for the most part, we can
say we know what Paul means and
that we feel we have experienced
things working out for us in
sometimes amazing ways. We also
possibly know some persons whose
lives show that what Paul says is
actually true. I know some!
I have been contemplating
Paul's words for years. One thing
I see in seeking to understand
what this means and how it works
is that persons who love God,
trust God, and believe that God
will bring all things into a good
conclusion. In one of my website
pieces I wrote about the way Dr.
Ernest Wilson, formerly regarded
as the dean of Unity ministers,
practiced this love, this trust.
Whenever he was thinking in terms
of some specific outworking, he
would say, "This or what in Thy
sight is better."
Not only does our God/love
consciousness mean that we behold
human beings as whole and perfect
in spirit with the potential of
manifesting this perfection
humanly. It also means that we
love human beings in their/our
present state of evolution. This
is where our love is challenged
and where we are all learning
more every day as we evolve this
spiritual love and the capacity
to express it. In this context it
is enlightening to realize that
human and spiritual are not
different - not two selves! The
human is the dimension of life
into which God has brought us at
this time. Our human condition
reflects where we are in evolving
the expression of our spiritual
potential on this plane.
Love is patient with the
progress or what often seems lack
of progress, but we are learning
that whatever the consciousness
or situation may be, there is
always the working together of
the good and towards the
expression of the good - God!
At this point in human history
we are in the midst of moving God
(in our minds) from abstraction,
from a heaven which we can
neither place nor comprehend.
Nobody has come forward with an
explanation of what produced the
Big Bang, that is, where it came
from and how it got there! But we
have progressed in linking
humankind's ubiquitous God
concept with an apparent upward
plane of evolution in every
aspect of what we call life, and
how certain qualities/attitudes
of mind govern our human
evolution and experience.
The present metaphysical/Truth
movement in which Unity has
played a major role moves us from
being able only to use God as a
name or word to describing God as
continuous creative activity
defined as intelligence, love,
purpose, meaning, infinite
dimensions of
expression/manifestation. In
Jesus' words and ministry we find
God defined in terms of father,
family, caring, grace (meaning
there is no failure, no end, no
punishment.)
To love God in human beings is
to treat them as intelligent,
etc., including the nature of God
as we define God. Human beings
are God in expression, and are
defined exactly in the same way.
As we said above, at the same
time we realize our God-nature is
in the process of evolving in our
human expression.
As we meditate and contemplate
and practice this God/love
concept, we become more and more
loving until I John 3:2 is
fulfilled in us: "Beloved, now
are we the sons of God, and it
doth not yet appear what we shall
be: but we know that, when he
shall appear [be recognized
in our consciousness], we
shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is."
Finally I am making the point
that belongs in the beginning:
all of this works better to the
degree that we first find God in
ourselves - love God in
ourselves, love ourselves! As I
continued to meditate today on
what I have written, I remembered
that the beginning of Jesus'
ministry was His discovery of His
Sonship. When He found God, when
He found Himself, He was ready to
minister to others.
All my life I have wanted to
love others, to minister to
others, but I have realized for a
long time that my life problems
grew out of my not loving myself.
For the last fourteen years here
in Victoria and in our church I
have been gradually learning to
love myself.
For many of us, I believe,
those words - "learning to love
myself" have seemed almost a
sacrilege, but they are the very
opposite. Jesus' second
commandment was to love our
neighbour AS ourself. I'm sure
that means we must first love
ourself, then we can love our
neighbour!
Now take another look at I
John 3:2. This obviously means
that each of us (yes, even you
and I) will be like him when we
see him [within ourselves as
in others] as he is! Think
about it!
Don
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