Most all humans love love! We don’t always understand love. We often get hurt by love, especially unrequited love. And, despite our love for others, we often hurt them. But there is no questioning how much humans love love! It is the number one topic for songs and fairytales. Trying to avoid love is near impossible because Nature has built into our bodies some of the most powerful hormones for loving. Evolution's unswerving drive for survival of the species has developed a human body that is loaded with powerful chemicals to help ensure the success of human bonding. The “love chemical” is phenylethylamine (PEA). When this is released in the brain of any human, he or she will feel uncontrollably amorous, romantic, and “turned on” by the person who is the object of these feelings. Follow this up with a little oxytocin (often called “the cuddle chemical”), and you have the lovemaking sensations of relaxed pleasure and attachment. For the relationship to endure, however, endorphins must be released in the brain. If they are, then the love relationship endures.
Edgar Cayce curiously correlated love with law – which is paradoxical. Here’s how he taught this:
The law of God is LOVE of God, and is not a hardship. Make your life and your love of your fellow man a living thing in your experience day by day. Smile oft. Speak gently. Be kind.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 262-109
To a 12-year-old Jewish girl Cayce taught:
The law of the Lord is perfect. Love of the law, love of the Lord is perfect. For, love is perfect if it is selfless in its reactions to associations one with another. The first and the last commandments are the whole law: Thou shalt love the Lord thy god with all thy heart, thy mind, thy soul, thy body; and thy neighbor as thyself. The rest only explains, only interprets, only manifests for the individual the tenets of the law. For the law is love, and love is law. And the Lord is one in same.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 2905-3
The Greeks actually help grasp three major types of love, using the Greek words eros, philia, and agape. Eros refers to love that is passionate, intense, and sexual. Philia love is fondness and appreciation of another, beyond self. It is friendship, family loyalty, community ties, love for one's work, and the like. Philia is associated with “brotherly,” as in Philadelphia (phila-delphi, city of brotherly love.) Agape love is God's love for His/Her children and humanity's love for one another. Agape love does not seek anything in return for its expression. However, agape love has an ethical standard and may therefore impartially determine another's warranting love – something we acknowledge today as “tough love,” meaning a love that calls the other to higher levels of behavior. In the New Testament, written in Greek, many of the “love” statements used the word agape. When the monks translated the King James version of the Bible, they were so concerned that the English word “love” was too vague, not as clear as the Greek word, so they translated agape as “charity”! Agape love is akin to charity: caring for others without seeking anything in return. St. Thomas Aquinas called charity “the foundation or root” of all Christian virtues. The King James Bible is the only Bible using the word “charity,” all the many other English translations still use love.
The Holy Scriptures are filled with encouragements to love. In the apostle John’s epistle (1 John 4:7-12), he wrote:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love .... If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”
Most have come to understand that Jesus did not mean literal death, but rather thinking more of what another may need than what self may want. Yet, this must not become self-destructive. No one could accuse Jesus of being a doormat of self-deprecating love. He often radiated a tough love. Those around Him often needed to hear the truth and a clear position on God's ways, not pampering. Perhaps the best example is his discussions with Peter. One example was when Jesus explained that, “he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.” Upon hearing this Peter countered by suggested that they don’t go into the city, and thereby avoid the authorities: “Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Be it far from you, Lord; this shall never be for you.’ But Jesus turned, and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling-block to me for you mind not the things of God but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:21-23) For Peter’s sake he must realize that his thinking was that akin to Satan’s, desiring the ways that seem best to humans over those that are known to be God’s ways. Jesus loved Peter, but truth also had to be maintained.
A key passage in the New Testament lays down a foundation upon which all other biblical perspectives on love may be understood. The scene is also fascinating. Jesus is at the temple in Jerusalem where pigeons are being sacrificed and the smell and smoke are everywhere. An official scribe working at the temple overhears Jesus answering questions and he likes Jesus’ replies, so he asks the teacher a very important question. These passages are in the Gospel of Mark:
“One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together, and knowing that Jesus had answered them well, asked him, ‘What commandment is the first of all?’
“Jesus answered, ‘The first is, Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.’
“And the scribe said unto him, ‘Of a truth, Teacher, you have well said that the Lord is one and there is none other but God; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’
“And when Jesus heard that the scribe answered well, he said unto him, ‘You are close to the kingdom of God.’” (Mark 12:28-34 RSV)
Notice how Jesus acknowledges the wisdom and understanding that the script has gained from his own personal spiritual search. Notice also that though the scribe is standing in the physical world, Jesus says that he is close to the kingdom of God. This reveals that the kingdom of God is not beyond this world. Heaven may be approached while incarnate. Additionally, notice how an official of the temple, in which the practice of animal and grain burning are part of the daily ritual, has come to know that these are not what God seeks. God seeks love from us; love toward God and toward our neighbors.
Keep in mind that those who live with us are our closest neighbors, though we often take them for granted. They should receive our love. Let us do as Cayce directed:
Make your life and your love of your fellow man a living thing in your experience day by day. Smile oft. Speak gently. Be kind.
-- Edgar Cayce reading 262-109
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