Ken Glasziou

    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 commandent referred to in the gospels.       The Fourth Epochal Revelation upgraded its meaning because of its revelation of the true nature of God through and in the life of Jesus. For the Jews, the second great commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself. The Fourth Epochal revelation brought a quantum leap to its meaning by upgrading it from a material to a spiritual level. It told us we must love one another as Jesus loved us.

   Almost 2000 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 substance of the Fourth Epochal Revelation in our lives, the Fifth is wasted on us.

    For the individual, it serves no useful purpose to be familiar with the definitions and explanations of such matters as 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 from our actual living. Nor does it serve any useful purpose if we acquire a detailed intellectual knowledge about reincarnation, what the mansion worlds are really like, the differences between mind, body, soul, and personality, and all those other fascinating matters if the basics, the upgraded two great commandments, are absent from our lives.

    The Urantia Book informs us that many mortals discern and interpret the golden rule as a purely intellectual affirmation of human fraternity. The enhanced version of the golden rule is to treat others as we conceive God would treat them. How many of us restrict its potential application only to those we conceive of as likely to treat us in the same way? And find them few and far between?

    How does the book tell us we can comprehend the truth of the second great commandment? It states: "...by realizing its meaning in the living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth who directs the loving contact of one human being with another." Does the Spirit of Truth really direct our personal relationships with our fellows? All relationships or just some? If the latter, we may need to check out the bit about, "all allegiance or none." (1469)

    Jesus' upgrade of the golden rule takes on "living qualities of spiritual realization" by making a quantum jump up 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." Who was the Urantian who once said, "That stuff is alright in theory but this is a real world we are living in now."?

    Only a divine being can know what constitutes the highest possible good for our neighbor. As the book interprets neighbor, it includes family, friends, the person next door or down the street, and even includes our enemies if we have them. And because only a divine being can know anybody's highest possible good, the book tells us that its interpretation must come from the Spirit of Truth.

    How can we know when we ourselves have made the quantum leap to the spiritual plane in our interpersonal relationships? One way, it seems, is that we are "filled to overflowing with the assurance of citizenship in a friendly universe." So do we really feel that we live in a totally friendly home, town, workplace, country, world, universe? Maybe we have some homework to do with the big blue book, the Spirit of Truth, and our Thought Adjuster?

    Do we ever ponder on Jesus' answer when Ganid asked him 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 life work 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 really friendly appears to be a prerequisite for being able to truly love others as Jesus loved us.

    How do we get along with the Master's teaching about non-resistance to evil? It seems that this is basically a spiritual pronouncement. Turning the other cheek means that whatever our reaction might be, it has to be unselfish and it must consider the cosmic good of the evil-doer. For that, we need the direction of the Spirit of Truth. There are no rules. Every situation requiring a moral decision is unique. It has never happened exactly in that way before. Hence, "...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 such divine leading can our reactions be for the utmost cosmic good of the evil doer--who, coincidentally, is also our neighbor.

    The essence of the Fifth Epochal Revelation's instruction on the second great