When I was in high school, one of my favorite singers Howard Jones, had a song that asked “what is love, anyway?” That song get in my head quite a lot, because that question is an important one, especially as I seek to live a spiritual life.
Love is a divine attribute; it is an idea in the One Mind. God is love and love is God.
In the Greek language there are 7 kinds of love. Seven different words for the different types of love. In English, we don’t have that many words for love. We’re all pretty familiar with the personal kinds of love. I love to cook. I love the snow. I love a big cup of tea on a cold afternoon. I love my daughter. I love my family. I love my church family. And all those types of love are beautiful and wonderful; but I think there is something greater to explore when I think of God is love and love is God.
We’re told, “the Law of the Lord is perfect” and the law of the Lord is Love. Love harmonizes everything, it unifies everything. Love gives to everything. Flows through everything. This type of love is more than a sentiment. Ernest Holmes says, “This love is a deep sense of the underlying unity….of all life, the goodness running through everything.”
The Mind of God is infintie . The mind of human is some part of this infinite Creative Mind of God. Therefore, the mind of human is as infinite as the human’s capacity to understand her true nature to God or Spirit.
I’ve thought a lot about love this year, particularly the two types of radical love that the Greeks called Philautia, or self love and Agape, or selfless love. From this teaching, and many ancient teachings as well, we understand that God is all there is, and that God is love. So, if God is all there is, then I must be divine. And if God is Love, that calls me to a greater responsibility of knowing (and acting and treating) myself as divine love. What does this mean, knowing myself as divine love? Loving myself as divine love? To me, Pilautia love, or self love, means knowing deep down, really, really understanding, that I and God are One. It is this visceral knowing that all of me is made up of God, the parts I like, the parts I don’t like, the parts I’m embarrassed about, the parts I’m ashamed about, the parts I enjoy. All of me. All of me is God, and God is Love. This understanding of the tenets of our teaching brings me to a place of objective compassion for myself so I can embrace all of myself in and as Love. As I bring that objective love and acceptance to myself, my attention also naturally expands.
Agape love is the highest form of love, and is other radical form of Love that we are called to. Agape love embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance or condition. Love, unattached to conditions. Agape love is a decision to receive and respond to God’s love. This is the love of thought, deed and action that changes the world.
What if today we knew that:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
Written by Rebecca Beall – Columbia CSL Practitioner Student
