will be able to live from the soul / spiritual mind and make loving decisions.
It is indeed love – fulfilling what can be regarded as the “Eleventh Commandment” – that transcends the law and identifies us as Jesus’ disciples. As the first to inherit the Celestial Kingdom of God, Jesus is the Master of that realm. He is the pioneer of many who have already entered, or are yet to enter, the Father’s Kingdom as divine angels transformed by the Divine Love into new creatures and true children of God – immortal as God is immortal. Jesus told his disciples shortly before his death:
John 13:34-35 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you [with the Divine Love], so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
He elaborated further:
John 15:8-12 – “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love [Divine Love]. If you obey my commands [to love one another], you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends [not necessarily in sacrifice]. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you [the gospel of salvation through Divine Love].
As shown in the previous chapter, desires are the key to and seeds of our actions and their consequences. If our desires are motivated by love, we’ll do well and reap blessings, but if they are motivated by the “sinful nature”, including ego, the desires will come to fruition as sin.
Romans 8:5-7 tells us: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit [Divine Love] have their minds set on what the Spirit desires [spiritual pursuits and loving actions]. The mind of sinful man is death [making the soul dead or dormant], but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace [Divine Love leading to immortality and peace that passes all understanding]; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
James sums it up succinctly:
James 1:14-15 – But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death [death of the soul without the Divine Love].
As mentioned, ultimately the Law of Love is the highest law. Love fulfills all individual laws and indeed transcends those laws. In other words, if we love others, motivated by the Divine Love in our souls, we don’t have to worry about the minute laws that the Pharisees were in Jesus’ time and some Christians still are so particular about – sometimes at the cost of being unloving. We are exhorted in the book of Romans:
Romans 13:8-10 – “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
James 2:8 calls the second great commandment the “royal law”. It says: “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right.”
1 Thessalonians 4:9 reads: “Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God [through His Love working in and changing our hearts and souls] to love each other.” (See also John 6:45 and Isaiah 54:13)
Jesus’ closest disciple, John, who understood his teaching better than the others, penned these words:
1 John 4:12-18 – No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. [Divine Love imparted by his Holy Spirit]. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God [through union with God as a result of the Divine Love], God lives in him and he in God [in the same way that this was true of Jesus]. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in [Divine] love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment [since the law of compensation has been transcended], because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
To finish this chapter, here is a quote from the famous Love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. Amazingly, spiritual gifts, understanding of mysteries, faith, extreme generosity, and even martyrdom amount to nothing if not motivated by love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 – And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. … Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
So to sum up, love – indeed Divine Love – is the most excellent way and the highest law – transcending even the law of compensation. Dwelling in our heart/soul, it transforms us from inside out into loving individuals. Our destiny is to become divine, immortal angels of God who will have unlimited growth potential, understand more and more of divine mysteries, and forever enjoy the beauties of God’s Celestial Kingdom. And the best news is that the Divine Love is freely available for the asking.