Читать книгу From Karma to Grace - John Van Auken - Страница 16

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:34; RSV

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.

John 13:35; RSV

Clearly, Jesus is calling us to come to know love and to live in love. His group will be identifiable by this one characteristic: they express love.

The disciple Paul took up this new way, writing:

Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8; RSV

Paul had much to say in his affirming of love’s role in the spiritual life, the most famous being this passage:

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love exalts not itself, is not puffed up, love never fails—but where there be prophecies, they shall be done away; where there be tongues, they shall cease; where there be knowledge, it shall be done away. But now abides faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. Follow after love; let all that you do be done in love. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Excerpts taken from 1 Corinthians 13-16

It is in one of the letters of the apostle John that we find an important insight into why love is so important. John tells us that the quintessential quality of God is love. Love is the music of God, the vibration of God, and the spirit of God.

My loved ones, let us have love for one another because love is of God, and everyone who has love is a child of God and has knowledge of God. He who has no love has no knowledge of God, because God is love. No man has ever seen God; if we have love for one another, God is in us and his love is made complete in us. His Spirit, which he has given us, is the witness that we are in him and he is in us. And we have seen and had faith in the love, which God has for us. God is love, and everyone who has love is in God, and God is in him.

1 John 4:7-16; BBE

God is love, and all who live and express love, live in and express God. Perhaps the most difficult of the teachings on love is that we are not only to love our neighbors but also our enemies.

You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy; but I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that you may be sons [and daughters] of your Father who is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans [tax collectors] the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the Gentiles the same? You therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48, ASV; brackets mine

Perfect? Yes, Jesus wants us to become perfect, as is our Heavenly Father. Paul affirms the perfecting power of active love for all in this statement:

Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

Colossians 3:14

Jesus expanded on this teaching:

But love your enemies, and do them good, and lend, never despairing; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be sons of the Most High: for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.

Luke 6:35

If God expresses lovingkindness to the ungrateful and wicked, how can we become companions with God if we cannot do likewise?