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The Second Great Commandment.
Some questions posed by The Urantia Book
At the time of Jesus, the Shema was recited twice daily by faithful Jews: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." This was the first great commandment referred to in the gospels. The Fourth Epochal Revelation upgraded its meaning because of its revelation of the true nature of God through the life of Jesus. The second great commandment was that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. The Fourth Epochal Revelation brought a quantum leap to its meaning by upgrading it from a material to a spiritual level. It told us that we must love one another as Jesus loves us.
Almost two thousand years later, we have been given an enhanced revelation of both of these two great commandments in The Urantia Book. However, if we are not living out the basics of the Fourth Epochal Revelation in our lives, the Fifth is wasted.
It serves no useful purpose to be familiar with the definitions of God the Sevenfold, the difference between the absolutes and the ultimates, the existential and the experiential, the finite and the absonite, if the basics are absent. Nor does it serve any useful purpose if we acquire a detailed knowledge on whether or not reincarnation is for real, what the mansion worlds are like, the differences between mind, body, soul, and personality, and all the other fascinating details contained in the book, if the basics are absent in our lives. Without them, we are no further advanced spiritually than if we had never heard of either revelation.
The Urantia Book informs us that some persons discern and interpret the golden rule as a purely intellectual affirmation of human fraternity. How many of us see the enhanced version, to love one another as Jesus loves us, in that same light, mere brotherly love?
How does the book tell us we can comprehend the true meaning of this second great commandment? It states pithily: "by realizing its meaning in the living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth who directs the loving contact of one human being with another." Ask yourself if it is really true that the Spirit of Truth directs your own personal relationships with your fellows. If you are sure it does, you pass. If you are unsure, read on. Those about to sign off need to check one point. Does the Spirit of Truth direct all those relationships? Or just some? If the latter, then check the bit about "all allegiance or none." (1469) Then read on.
Jesus' upgrade of the golden rule takes on "living qualities of spiritual realization" by making a quantum jump to the spiritual plane "when we so relate ourselves to our fellows that they will receive the highest possible good as a result of our contact with them."
Only a divine being can know what constitutes the highest possible good for our neighbor. Here, neighbor means family, friends, lover, the person next door or down the street somewhere (or anywhere), and includes our enemies, if we have them. And because only a divine being can have such knowledge, the book tells us that the interpretation of the law of conduct must be made for us. On Urantia that means by "the spirit of the Son to the spirit of the Father."
How do we know when we have made the quantum jump? Easy - we are "filled to overflowing with the assurance of citizenship in a friendly universe." Ask yourself (and answer truthfully): Do you really feel that you live in a totally friendly home, village, town, country, world, universe? If you cannot truthfully say yes, then you have some homework to do with that big blue book - and the Spirit of Truth and your Thought Adjuster.
Did you ever ponder on Jesus' answer to Ganid when asked about his attitude to an aggressor? "Ganid, I have absolute confidence in my heavenly Father's overcare; I am consecrated to doing the will of my Father in heaven. I do not believe that real harm can befall me; I do not believe that my lifework can really be jeopardized by anything my enemies might wish to visit upon me, and surely we have no violence to fear from our friends. I am absolutely assured that the entire universe is friendly to me - this all-powerful truth I insist on believing with a wholehearted trust in spite of all appearances to the contrary." Faith that the universe is friendly to us is a prerequisite to loving as Jesus loves.
We have some more self testing to complete. How do you get along with the Master's teaching and practice of non-resistance to evil? It appears that this is basically a spiritual pronouncement. Turning the other cheek means that whatever our reaction may be, it has to be unselfish and it must consider the cosmic good of the evil-doer. For that, we need the help of the Spirit of Truth. There are no rules. Every situation requiring a moral decision is unique, it has never happened before in exactly that way, and it will never do so again. Thus, "love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living re-adaptive interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of the Spirit of Truth." Only with this divine leading can our reactions be for the utmost cosmic good of the evil-doer (who, coincidentally, is one of our neighbors).
The essence of the Fifth Epochal Revelation's instruction on the second great commandment is self-forgetfulness, coupled to a continuous and conscious quest for the
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