These essays are written in sequence and build on each other. Read the preceding essay here.
We continue our exploration of the unity of God’s Will and His Love.
In the first essay in this series we examined the outcomes of trying to understand God’s Will while ignoring His Love. This was an error common with the Jews at the time of Christ.
In subsequent essays we explored the nature of God’s Love.
We can now turn our attention to an error common today, which is that of focusing on God’s Love while ignoring His Will.
The Love without The Will?
God’s Love and God’s Will are two sides of the same coin, as explained in The Word.
As discussed in the previous essay, we have developed an earthly concept of love that presents love as something that supports bending the rules.
Having made this error, we then extend it to our concept of God’s Love through our anthropomorphic thinking habits.
We invest God’s Love with attributes that are not associated with God, and that were not associated with Christ Himself while He was on earth. For example: being soft and weak; acting randomly; prioritizing convenience and comfort; etc…
This is not love. True love expresses itself in spiritual loyalty and consistency, whether it comes from man or God.
He that hath my commandments,
— KJV, John 14:21
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.
This wrong concept expresses itself in Christian misinterpretation of terms like “divine favour”, “mercy”, “grace”, etc.
Every manifestation of God’s Will is a manifestation of His Love.
Creation itself is an act of Love, designed to give all creatures the gift of life.
Therefore when we interpret “favour” or “mercy” as God bending the Laws of Creation or playing favourites, we merely show ignorance of both His Will and His Love, as well as ignorance of The Word.
Favour, mercy, grace, etc, are quite real. But there is no need for God to do anything “special” to grant them to man. They have already been lovingly provided for within the pathways of the Laws of Creation (God’s Will) which are an expression of His Power and His Love, as discussed in an earlier essay.
Because of the Omniscience that is within God’s Will and God’s Love, Creation provides infinite possibilities to help every man who requests in the spirit of true love and humility, in any situation.
To receive this help consistently we must take the time to understand God’s Laws, and make the effort to change ourselves accordingly.
Otherwise we would be like those trying to operate a machine without reading the user manual – sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t. We will get random and unpredictable results from our machine, and begin to think of the inventor of the machine as random and unpredictable.
The Word is an expression of God’s Love, and when we have truly understood It we will also understand God’s Will, which is equivalent to the Laws of Creation.
Because of our ignorance of these Laws, when we benefit from Them or are helped in times of distress, we attribute this to “divine favour” and “special grace”. It is indeed favour and grace, but not favouritism or randomness, and it is accessible to all who seek Him in spirit and truth.
If we had understanding of The Word, at such times we would humbly praise God for the Wisdom and Love that he has embedded in Creation through His Laws, such that His Power is available to us if only we align with His Laws in a spirit of love and humility.
This attitude offers higher praise to the Creator than the “favouritism” view that makes him appear to be a rule-bending Father-Christmas-in-the-sky i.e. a mere Super-man.
And of his fulness have all we received,
— John 1:16-17
and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
The grace is in Christ’s Word.
The Word took us beyond the “body” of the law by helping us to understand the Love that is the essence of God’s Will, which had been expressed in the Mosaic law.
Through The Word we gain a deep understanding of Truth.
We are given the “user manual” of Creation. We understand the why of the Ten Commandments. We understand the machine of Creation, whose engine is Love.
As we cultivate this love in ourselves, we gain continuous access to grace through our automatic alignment with God’s Laws, which are expressions of His Love.
Today’s Resolution
- We shall hold to the truth that God’s Will for us expresses His Love for us. Therefore we shall seek His Will and not ours, particularly when His Will appears uncomfortable and inconvenient to us.
The Word, (Re)Discovered 