God, Man, and Supreme
CHAPTER NINETEEN:
FAITH AND
THE
(Continued from previous page)
Faith
The Kingdom
Jesus' Teaching of the
Gospel
Sonship and Brotherhood
Fruits of the Kingdom
The Social Impact of the Kingdom
The Fruits of the Spirit -- Selected Quotes
The Dynamics of Love
The Social Impact of the Kingdom
The spiritual
As the gospel of this kingdom shall spread over the world with its message of good cheer and good will to all men, there will grow up improved and better relations among the families of all nations. As time passes, fathers and their children will love each other more, and thus will be brought about a better understanding of the love of the Father in heaven for his children on earth. [UB 142:2:2 (1597:2)]
Although the kingdom of
heaven resides in the hearts of men, and is not therefore a social institution
in and of itself, when the spirit kingdom has infiltrated the hearts of all
men, such a worldwide spiritual brotherhood of God-knowing individuals will eventuate into a social phenomenon
that is bound to repercuss in major social changes. The
The spiritual transformation of humanity will lead to the worldwide brotherhood of man. This is the only technique that can accelerate the natural trend of social evolution. The spread of augmented moral insight and deepening of soul capacity of every mortal to love and understand his fellow mortal will lead to transcended civilization and the worldwide realization of the brotherhood of man. This ideal of social attainment can only be realized in the establishment of the divine kingdom.
And, sooner or later, these concealed truths of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men will emerge to effectually transform the civilization of all mankind. [UB 194:2:9 (2064:7)]
The world at large is in great need of spiritual light in order to expose and eliminate the age-old vestiges of hatred and intolerance. However, the majority of those lost souls who are fettered in this worldly darkness cannot by their own accord hope to benefit from this spiritual light. Without the Father's saving grace, they will by their own accord fail to find their "saving light". Though this saving light is shared in common by those who have found their place within the kingdom of heaven, this same light is not immediately apprehensible to those who have yet to find their way into the spirit-illuminated kingdom. By the grace of God, all sincere seekers for the truth are capable of finding their heart's desire and "are glad to hear the glad tidings of the faith gift which insures admission to the kingdom with its eternal and divine spirit realities."[UB 141:7:3 (1593:4)]
The world is filled with hungry souls who famish in the very presence of the bread of life; men die searching for the very God who lives within them. Men seek for the treasures of the kingdom with yearning hearts and weary feet when they are all within the immediate grasp of living faith. [UB 159:3:8 (1766:4)]
Jesus' gospel of the kingdom of heaven compels us to vigorously bring our sincere and loving service into the world at large. We can readily avail ourselves of his Spirit of Truth as a "power-multiplying fulcrum", as a "mighty social lever to uplift the races of darkness." [UB 178:1:6 (1930:3)] Jesus exhorts us to become living channels of spiritual light to our brothers and sisters who languish in spiritual darkness. We are to be living lighthouses that lead men and women into the safe harbors of the Father's kingdom. We cannot forcefully drag our brothers and sisters into the Kingdom by the feet kicking and screaming, we must rather allow the spiritual attractiveness of our own inner light to be a welcome and beckoning beacon of salvation. If we are wholesome in personality, if we are sincere in producing the fruits of our loving service, and if our souls emanate this inner and loving shine, then we will naturally draw people by their own free will onto the path of salvation and into the kingdom of heaven.
"You are the light of the world. A city set upon a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and be led to glorify your Father who is in heaven." [UB 140:3:13 (1570:14)]
We who know firsthand the Father's loving light and saving grace must henceforth reach out into this worldly darkness in loving and gracious service. We must give forth the bounties of our own spiritual fruits. This is precisely how we can literally change the world and release it from the darkness of its depravity, and we can only accomplish this one loving encounter at a time.
Then Jesus spoke, saying: "Now that you are ambassadors of my Father's kingdom, you have thereby become a class of men separate and distinct from all other men on earth. You are not now as men among men but as the enlightened citizens of another and heavenly country among the ignorant creatures of this dark world. It is not enough that you live as you were before this hour, but henceforth must you live as those who have tasted the glories of a better life and have been sent back to earth as ambassadors of the Sovereign of that new and better world." [UB 140:3:1 (1570:2)]
As a true believer is connected to the spiritual "vine" in the form of a living "branch", such a faith-son of the living Father is expected to do just one thing - to yield with ever-increasing vigor the abundant fruits of the spirit. He must lovingly serve his brothers and sisters, these forlorn and lost children of the Paradise Father. The truth of this living law of dedicated and selfless service can best be found in the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Man and Son of God, the true and living vine, and the eternal way to personal salvation.
The Parable of the Vine [UB 180:2:1 (1945:4)]:
Jesus is the vine.
The Father is the husbandman (caretaker).
The followers of Jesus are the branches.
The Father requires of the vine that the branches bear much fruit.
If a branch bears no fruit, it will be pruned from the vine to increase the vine's fruitfulness.
If a branch bears fruit, it will be cleansed to increase the branch's fruitfulness.
A branch will die if it is separated from the vine.
"As the branch cannot bear fruit except it abides in the vine, so neither can you yield the fruits of loving service except you abide in me. Remember: I am the real vine, and you are the living branches. He who lives in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit of the spirit and experience the supreme joy of yielding this spiritual harvest. If you will maintain this living spiritual connection with me, you will bear abundant fruit. If you abide in me and my words live in you, you will be able to commune freely with me, and then can my living spirit so infuse you that you may ask whatsoever my spirit wills and do all this with the assurance that the Father will grant us our petition." [UB 180:2:1 (1945:4)]
As living branches abiding in the vine of Jesus, we derive our spiritual sustenance from his Spirit of Truth and the proof of this lies in the abundance of our good fruit. We may be comforted in the knowledge that a pure and living faith can lay direct hold upon the creative power resident "in the Master's person". In the reported case of Veronica of Caesarea Philippi and her chance meeting with Jesus [UB 152:0:2,3 (1698:2,3)], her pure and sincere faith alone enabled her to bring about a real and apparently miraculous cure for her particular malady over time. This cure was wrought without Jesus having in any sense consciously willed it. "With the faith she had, it was only necessary to approach the Master's person." [UB 152:0:3 (1698:3)]
It is, then, our opinion that, in the personal presence of Jesus, certain forms of profound human faith were literally and truly compelling in the manifestation of healing by certain creative forces and personalities of the universe who were at that time so intimately associated with the Son of Man. It therefore becomes a fact of record that Jesus did frequently suffer men to heal themselves in his presence by their powerful, personal faith. [UB 149:1:8 (1669:7)]
This faith-response that
lay resident in the person of Jesus is available to us even today through the
Master's living Spirit of Truth. If we personify a pure and sincere faith, we
draw to ourselves the spirit presence of Jesus, and with our faith great things
are possible. There is great power in Jesus' Spirit of Truth. Our faith takes
on a healing nature, and it propels us into the world with joy and confidence
proclaiming the good news of the Gospel. When we are baptized in the saving
waters of Jesus' promised Comforter, this bestowed Spirit of Truth, we will
"bravely and joyously go forth to meet the new experiences of proclaiming the
good news of eternal life in the
Never before Jesus was on earth, nor since, has it been possible so directly and graphically to secure the results attendant upon the strong and living faith of mortal men and women. To repeat these phenomena, we would have to go into the immediate presence of Michael, the Creator, and find him as he was in those days--the Son of Man. Likewise, today, while his absence prevents such material manifestations, you should refrain from placing any sort of limitation on the possible exhibition of his spiritual power. Though the Master is absent as a material being, he is present as a spiritual influence in the hearts of men. By going away from the world, Jesus made it possible for his spirit to live alongside that of his Father which indwells the minds of all mankind. [UB 152:1:5 (1700:1)]
While the religious faith of each one of us is uniquely personal and individualized, the fruits that are produced from such a growing soul-spirit must nevertheless be directed into assorted social channels. Jesus called to the kingdom of heaven not only the would-be righteous, but also the sinners and "all who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of divine perfection." [UB 137:8:16 (1537:3)] The good news of Jesus concerning the all-inclusive love of the heavenly Father for his children on earth "must be carried to all of the world", we are to tell "this good news to all creatures of every, race, tribe, and nation." [UB 137:8:16 (1537:3)] It is by giving our love to our brothers and sisters as we are loved by God, and even as Jesus loves us, that we become abundant in the bearing of the fruits of the divine spirit.
"The revelation I have made to you is a living revelation, and I desire that it shall bear appropriate fruits in each individual and in each generation in accordance with the laws of spiritual growth, increase, and adaptative development. From generation to generation this gospel must show increasing vitality and exhibit greater depth of spiritual power. It must not be permitted to become merely a sacred memory, a mere tradition about me and the times in which we now live." [UB 178:1:15 (1931:6)]
The love of Jesus seeks the salvation of the righteous and the sinner alike by attempting to win them over to goodness and righteous survival - "Jesus loves men so much that his love awakens the response of love in the human heart." [UB 188:5:2 (2018:1)] Even of the sinners, we are told "in the gospel of the kingdom the Father goes forth to find them even before they have seriously thought of repentance." [UB 159:1:2 (1762:4)]
"Increasingly, must you
yield the fruits of the spirit as you progress heavenward in the
We who are established within the spiritual kingdom can attempt no less. This is our greatest gift back to the heavenly Father - to put our full faith into the goodness of his purpose and to devote ourselves to the doing of his merciful will in loving service.
If you would share the Master's joy, you must share his love. And to share his love means that you have shared his service. [UB 180:1:5 (1945:2)]
The social fruits of religion are love and service. Moral character is developed through unselfish service to community and through the building of loving relationships with one's brothers and sisters in the flesh. This type of growth cannot be accomplished while living like a secluded hermit in a cave. It is in dedicated service that the fruits of the spirit are demonstrated, and it is this "good fruit" which unfailingly nurtures a confident survival faith. Whereas the heavenly experience of the kingdom is one of personal joy for the individual, the spiritual fruits generated by this experience of grace are always directed outward to the community in unselfish and loving service. The socialized fruits of the spirit are manifested by the faith-children of the Father as generated by authentic spiritual experience. This call to service "is the natural outworking of this inner experience of the soul as it manifests the fruits of the spirit in the spontaneous daily ministry of genuine religious experience." [UB 140:10:7 (1585:4)]
Any religious belief which is effective in spiritualizing the believer is certain to have powerful repercussions in the social life of such a religionist. Religious experience unfailingly yields the "fruits of the spirit" in the daily life of the spirit-led mortal. [UB 99:5:6 (1091:5)]
Jesus' gospel of the spiritual kingdom has been subliminally changing the social practices of our world for the past two millennia. These subtle and superconscious influences are being manifested through the natural and inevitable outgrowths of the bountiful spiritual fruits yielded by his dedicated kingdom disciples. The intuitive recognition of the brotherhood of man coupled with the incessant spiritual drive towards loving service of one's fellows provides the impetus for changing the world. We are compelled to draw near to our worldly brothers and sisters in loving service, and it is in this process that we cast our spiritual light upon the darkness of their suffering.
It is not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being. If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man. [UB 100:4:6 (1098:3)]
You cannot sit on your laurels and remain an upstanding citizen within the spiritual kingdom of heaven. If you truly faith-grasp the all-encompassing truth of the Father's purpose and plan, how can you not increase your yield of the fruits of the spirit? How can you prove unwilling to heed the call of devoted service to your impoverished brothers and sisters? When you pass over from this world to the next, what accounting will you make of the many opportunities given you for sharing God's love, for comforting the suffering, and for contributing to the supreme vision of a better world for your children and your children's children?
You will someday assuredly be required to undergo a just and merciful reckoning" of your "endowments and stewardships of this world". [UB 176:3:8 (1918:1)] Are you prepared to face such spiritual scrutiny with resolution and conviction, comforted by the heart-felt assurance that you have made a bold and gallant effort? Surely, a faith well exercised in loving service is our desired goal. Can there be greater joy than this?
"Jesus has taught us that God lives in man; then how can we induce man to release these soul-bound powers of divinity and infinity? How shall we induce men to let go of God that he may spring forth to the refreshment of our own souls while in transit outward and then to serve the purpose of enlightening, uplifting, and blessing countless other souls? How best can I awaken these latent powers for good which lie dormant in your souls?" [UB 160:3:1 (1777:2)]
The Fruits of the Spirit - Selected Quotes
LOVE
Love is the secret of beneficial association between personalities.
[UB 12:9:2 (141:3)]
Love is the desire to do good to others.
[UB 56:10:21 (648:4)]
You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the will. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor's motives and sentiments.
[UB 100:4:6 (1098:3)]
Love is the rule of living within the kingdom--supreme devotion to God while loving your neighbor as yourself.
[UB 142:1:4 (1596:6)]
The less of love in any creature's nature, the greater the love need, and the more does divine love seek to satisfy such need. Love is never self-seeking, and it cannot be self-bestowed. Divine love cannot be self-contained; it must be unselfishly bestowed.
[UB 156:5:11 (1739:6)]
"You hold grudges and nurse vengefulness in direct proportion to your ignorance of the inner nature and true longings of your children and your fellow beings. Love is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life. It is founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom."
[UB 1741:5 (1898:5)]
Love is truly contagious and eternally creative.
[UB 188:5:2 (2018:1)]
JOY
There is inherent joy in freewill existence, independent of all extraneous influences.
[UB 28 5:16 (312:3)]
"The
[UB 34:6:11 (382:0)]
The pursuit of happiness is an experience of joy and satisfaction.
[UB 55:5:6 (630:3)]
Spiritual growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding.
[UB 100:4:3 (1098:0)]
Happiness and joy take origin in the inner life. You cannot experience real joy all by yourself. A solitary life is fatal to happiness.
[UB 111:4:7 (1220:6)]
"Joy and happiness are the outcome of a good life."
[UB 131:3:5 (1447:2)]
"But those who have found the kingdom, their joy will be full, and they shall be called the blest of all the earth."
[UB 137:6:5 (1533:3)]
"And whatever it shall cost you in the things of the world, no matter what price you may pay to enter the kingdom of heaven, you shall receive manyfold more of joy and spiritual progress in this world, and in the age to come eternal life."
[UB 137:8:14 (1537:1)]
"I bring you new joy and make it possible for you to experience new pleasure in knowing the delights of the bestowal of your heart's affection upon your fellow men."
[UB 180:1:2 (1944:5)]
If you would share the Master's joy, you must share his love. And to share his love means that you have shared his service.
[UB 180:1:5 (1945:2)]
Pentecost, then and now, signifies that the Jesus of history has become the divine Son of living experience. The joy of this outpoured spirit, when it is consciously experienced in human life, is a tonic for health, a stimulus for mind, and an unfailing energy for the soul.
[UB 194:3:22 (2065:7)]
PEACE
The great and immediate service of true religion is the establishment of an enduring unity in human experience, a lasting peace and a profound assurance.
[UB 5:4:2 (66:6)]
Remember, even if prayer does not change God, it very often effects great and lasting changes in the one who prays in faith and confident expectation. Prayer has been the ancestor of much peace of mind, cheerfulness, calmness, courage, self-mastery, and fair-mindedness in the men and women of the evolving races.
[UB 91:4:5 (998:3)]
One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil.
[UB 100:6:6 (1101:1)]
Peace in this life, survival in death, perfection in the next life, service in eternity--all these are achieved (in spirit) now when the creature personality consents--chooses--to subject the creature will to the Father's will.
[UB 111:5:4 (1221:5)]
"Happiness and peace of mind follow pure thinking and virtuous living as the shadow follows the substance of material things."
[UB 131:3:2 (1446:5)]
"When the faith of your religion has emancipated your heart, when the mind, like a mountain, is settled and immovable, then shall the peace of the soul flow tranquilly like a river of waters."
[UB 131:3:4 (1447:1)]
"When you know that you are saved by faith, you have real peace with God. And all who follow in the way of this heavenly peace are destined to be sanctified to the eternal service of the ever-advancing sons of the eternal God."
[UB 143:2:6 (1610:1)]
The peace which Michael gives his children on earth is that very peace which filled his own soul when he himself lived the mortal life in the flesh and on this very world. The peace of Jesus is the joy and satisfaction of a God-knowing individual who has achieved the triumph of learning fully how to do the will of God while living the mortal life in the flesh. The peace of Jesus' mind was founded on an absolute human faith in the actuality of the divine Father's wise and sympathetic overcare.
[UB 181:1:8 (1954:5)]
The peace of Jesus is, then, the peace and assurance of a son who fully believes that his career for time and eternity is safely and wholly in the care and keeping of an all-wise, all-loving, and all-powerful spirit Father. And this is, indeed, a peace which passes the understanding of mortal mind, but which can be enjoyed to the full by the believing human heart.
[UB 181:1:10 (1955:1)]
LONG-SUFFERING
Pain and suffering are essential to progressive evolution.
[UB 86:2:1 (951:])
Much of what a mortal would call good luck might really be bad luck; the smile of fortune that bestows unearned leisure and undeserved wealth may be the greatest of human afflictions; the apparent cruelty of a perverse fate that heaps tribulation upon some suffering mortal may in reality be the tempering fire that is transmuting the soft iron of immature personality into the tempered steel of real character.
[UB 118:10:9 (1305:4)]
"When the suffering servant obtains a vision of God, there follows a soul peace which passes all human understanding."
[UB 148:6:3 (1663:1)]
GENTLENESS
Jesus was great because he was good, and yet he fraternized with the little children. He was gentle and unassuming in his personal life, and yet he was the perfected man of a universe.
[UB 100:7:17 (1103:5)]
Jesus derived much of his unusual gentleness and marvelous sympathetic understanding of human nature from his father.
[UB 122:5:3 (1348:3)]
With all of this physical and intellectual influence manifest in the Master's presence, there were also all those spiritual charms of being which have become associated with his personality--patience, tenderness, meekness, gentleness, and humility.
[UB 141:3:7 (1589:8)]
"You are indeed to be gentle in your dealings with erring mortals, patient in your intercourse with ignorant men, and forbearing under provocation; but you are also to be valiant in defense of righteousness, mighty in the promulgation of truth, and aggressive in the preaching of this gospel of the kingdom, even to the ends of the earth."
[UB 178:1:14 (1931:5)]
GOODNESS
The more steadfastly you behold, and the more persistently you pursue, the concepts of divine goodness, the more certainly will you grow in greatness, in true magnitude of genuine survival character.
[UB 28:6:21 (317:3)]
Goodness embraces the sense of ethics, morality, and religion--experiential perfection-hunger.
[UB 56:10:10 (647:1)]
Goodness is the mental recognition of the relative values of the diverse levels of divine perfection. The recognition of goodness implies a mind of moral status, a personal mind with ability to discriminate between good and evil. But the possession of goodness, greatness, is the measure of real divinity attainment.
[UB 56:10: 12 (647:3)]
Goodness is always growing toward new levels of the increasing liberty of moral self-realization and spiritual personality attainment--the discovery of, and identification with, the indwelling Adjuster.
[UB 132:2:5 (1458:2)]
Goodness is living, relative, always progressing, invariably a personal experience, and everlastingly correlated with the discernment of truth and beauty. Goodness is found in the recognition of the positive truth-values of the spiritual level, which must, in human experience, be contrasted with the negative counterpart--the shadows of potential evil.
[UB 132:2:7 (1458:4)]
Jesus always insisted that true goodness must be unconscious, in bestowing charity not allowing the left hand to know what the right hand does.
[UB 140:8:26 (1583:0)]
All men, good and evil, recognize these elements of goodness in Jesus. And yet never is his piety obtrusive or ostentatious.
[UB 161:2:4 (1785:4)]
Goodness always compels respect, but when it is devoid of grace, it often repels affection. Goodness is universally attractive only when it is gracious. Goodness is effective only when it is attractive.
[UB 171:7:2 (1874:5)]
FAITH
Is faith--the supreme assertion of human thought--desirable? Then must the mind of man find itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever knows less than it can believe.
[UB 3:5:9 (51:8)]
The consciousness of a victorious human life on earth is born of that creature faith which dares to challenge each recurring episode of existence when confronted with the awful spectacle of human limitations, by the unfailing declaration: Even if I cannot do this, there lives in me one who can and will do it, a part of the Father-Absolute of the universe of universes. And that is "the victory which overcomes the world, even your faith."
[UB 4:4:9 (59:5)]
Few persons live up to the faith which they really have. Unreasoned fear is a master intellectual fraud practiced upon the evolving mortal soul.
[UB 48:7:4 (556:4)]
Of Jesus it was truly said, "He trusted God." As a man among men he most sublimely trusted the Father in heaven. He trusted his Father as a little child trusts his earthly parent. His faith was perfect but never presumptuous. No matter how cruel nature might appear to be or how indifferent to man's welfare on earth, Jesus never faltered in his faith. He was immune to disappointment and impervious to persecution. He was untouched by apparent failure.
[UB 100:7:7 (1102:4)]
Faith reveals God in the soul.
[UB 101:2:10 (1106:9)]
Through religious faith the soul of man reveals itself and demonstrates the potential divinity of its emerging nature by the characteristic manner in which it induces the mortal personality to react to certain trying intellectual and testing social situations.
[UB 101:3:4 (1108:3)]
Through the appropriation of the faith of Jesus, mortal man can foretaste in time the realities of eternity.
[UB 101:6:17 (1113:6)]
Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living.
[UB 101:8:1 (1114:5)]
True religion is designed to lessen the strain of existence; it releases faith and courage for daily living and unselfish serving. Faith promotes spiritual vitality and righteous fruitfulness.
[UB 155:3:7 (1727:7)]
"But you who have been called out of darkness into the light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your faith shall dominate the combined attitudes of body, mind, and spirit."
[UB 155:617 (1733:5)]
Faith is to religion what sails are to a ship; it is an addition of power, not an added burden of life.
[UB 159:3:7 (1766:4)]
"When my children once become self-conscious of the assurance of the divine presence, such a faith will expand the mind, ennoble the soul, reinforce the personality, augment the happiness, deepen the spirit perception, and enhance the power to love and be loved."
[UB 159:3:11 (1766:8)]
Jesus enjoyed a sublime and wholehearted faith in God. He experienced the ordinary ups and downs of mortal existence, but he never religiously doubted the certainty of God's watchcare and guidance.
[UB 196:0:1 (2087:1)]
The faith of Jesus bore the transcendent fruits of the divine spirit. His faith was not immature and credulous like that of a child, but in many ways it did resemble the unsuspecting trust of the child mind. Jesus trusted God much as the child trusts a parent. He had a profound confidence in the universe--just such a trust as the child has in its parental environment.
[UB 196:0:11 (2089:1)]
It should not be the aim of kingdom believers literally to imitate the outward life of Jesus in the flesh but rather to share his faith; to trust God as he trusted God and to believe in men as he believed in men.
[UB 196:1:5 (2091:1)]
MEEKNESS
The meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
[UB 131:2:9 (1445:3)]
Genuine meekness has no relation to fear. It is rather an attitude of man co-operating with God--"Your will be done." It embraces patience and forbearance and is motivated by an unshakable faith in a lawful and friendly universe. It masters all temptations to rebel against the divine leading. Jesus was the ideal meek man of Urantia, and he inherited a vast universe.
[UB 140:5:11 (1574:4)]
"You do well to be meek before God and self-controlled before men, but let your meekness be of spiritual origin and not the self-deceptive display of a self-conscious sense of self-righteous superiority."
[UB 149:6:11 (1676:5)]
"I am indeed meek and humble in the presence of my Father, but I am equally and relentlessly inexorable where there is deliberate evildoing and sinful rebellion against the will of my Father in heaven."
[UB 159:3:9 (1766:5)]
TEMPERANCE
If you fail, will you rise indomitably to try anew? If you succeed, will you maintain a well-balanced poise--a stabilized and spiritualized attitude--throughout every effort in the long struggle to break the fetters of material inertia, to attain the freedom of spirit existence?
[UB 48:6:25 (555:3)]
On this same occasion the Master talked to the group about the desirability of possessing well-balanced characters. He recognized that it was necessary for most men to devote themselves to the mastery of some vocation, but he deplored all tendency toward overspecialization, toward becoming narrow-minded and circumscribed in life's activities. He called attention to the fact that any virtue, if carried to extremes, may become a vice. Jesus always preached temperance and taught consistency--proportionate adjustment of life problems. He pointed out that overmuch sympathy and pity may degenerate into serious emotional instability; that enthusiasm may drive on into fanaticism.
[UB 149:4:3 (1673:3)]
The all-consuming and indomitable spiritual faith of Jesus never became fanatical, for it never attempted to run away with his well-balanced intellectual judgments concerning the proportional values of practical and commonplace social, economic, and moral life situations.
[UB 196:0:7 (2088:2)]
All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows this love upon his fellows. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured; it is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving. Man can never take the love of the Father and imprison it within his heart. The Father's love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man's personality as he in turn bestowsthis love upon his fellows. The great circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to brothers, and hence to the Supreme. The love of the Father appears in the mortal personality by the ministry of the indwelling Adjuster. Such a God-knowing son reveals this love to his universe brethren, and this fraternal affection is the essence of the love of the Supreme. [UB 117:6.10 (1289:3)]
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We are told that the experience of personal relationships in every mortal life, whether with persons human or divine, possesses the greatest of all values. Each contact of a personal nature is an end unto itself. Love is simply the desire to do good to others, and this divine and inner urge of life is "founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom." [UB 174:1:3 (1898:3)] By necessity, true love must be dynamic. It must not be simply reciprocated to only those who love you. Divine love is always outgoing in its manifestation. It seeks ever to satisfy those hungry for love, for it cannot be self-contained. The greater the expressed hunger for love, the more resourcefully does divine love strive to satisfy such need.
Love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living readaptative interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of the Spirit of Truth. Love must thereby grasp the ever-changing and enlarging concepts of the highest cosmic good of the individual who is loved. And then love goes on to strike this same attitude concerning all other individuals who could possibly be influenced by the growing and living relationship of one spirit-led mortal's love for other citizens of the universe. And this entire living adaptation of love must be effected in the light of both the environment of present evil and the eternal goal of the perfection of divine destiny. [UB 180:5:10 (1950:5)]
As a crude analogy, we might think of ourselves as water faucets. The love of the Father is like the thirst-quenching water that, when we taste of it, we hold onto it dearly within our very being. However, if we do not let go of this refreshing water by letting it flow freely through us and outward to our parched brothers and sisters, then we can be satisfied with only a miniscule amount of this revitalizing water. If we can be inspired to let go of this precious water, it will flow profusely through our very being, and then our fill will be immeasurable. Such is our gift for being our Father's conduit of love.
Love gives and craves for attention. It seeks for such understanding fellowship as exists naturally between parent and child. A dynamic love begins with that inward and spiritual fellowship with God as Father, and this relationship very directly manifests itself in the outpouring of loving ministry for one's fellow man. Because of this genuine personal experience with a personal and loving God, one gains the consciousness of being a member of a growing family, and this insight propels this new family member into the active and unselfish service for an ever-enlarging brotherhood.
The greatest love the world has ever known is the love of Jesus. He loved man so much that he was willing to lay down his life for their better good. The love of Jesus is the highest ideal of love that we can emulate in our ministry for the welfare of our brothers and sisters. This sacred love is without qualification - it cares not whether the recipient is worthy of this love. It only desires the rehabilitation, healing, and salvation of all men through unselfish service in the devotion of love.
The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation. Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win men over to goodness and righteous survival. Jesus loves men so much that his love awakens the response of love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. Jesus' death on the cross exemplifies a love which is sufficiently strong and divine to forgive sin and swallow up all evil-doing. Jesus disclosed to this world a higher quality of righteousness than justice--mere technical right and wrong. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and actually destroys them. The forgiveness of love utterly transcends the forgiveness of mercy. Mercy sets the guilt of evil-doing to one side; but love destroys forever the sin and all weakness resulting therefrom. Jesus brought a new method of living to Urantia. He taught us not to resist evil but to find through him a goodness which effectually destroys evil. The forgiveness of Jesus is not condonation; it is salvation from condemnation. Salvation does not slight wrongs; it makes them right. True love does not compromise nor condone hate; it destroys it. The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness. The Master's love implies rehabilitation, eternal survival. It is altogether proper to speak of salvation as redemption if you mean this eternal rehabilitation. [UB 188:5:2 (2018:1)]
Jesus' gospel of the kingdom of heaven is an outgrowth of dynamic love that is first realized by recognizing the fact of God's sovereignty in the hearts of men. This recognition generates belief in the truth of sonship with this selfsame God, and this belief develops the saving faith that every desiring mortal being can effectively do the will of God - to be like God, to become perfect. The kingdom of heaven is founded on love, proclaimed in mercy, and established in unselfish service.
But when the Father's will becomes truly your will, then are you in very truth in the kingdom because the kingdom has thereby become an established experience in you. [UB 141:2:2 (1589:0)]
The reality of a personal
God facilitates fellowship, and the fellowship between God and man is only
experiencible provided both parties are persons. Mortal man can literally
experience the full and undiminished impact of the infinite Father's love in
all of its unlimited quality, even though he can never know the full extent of
the Father's infinitude. As a person, God is approachable - the Father is
attainable. The dynamic force of his divine love opens the way for advancement
of every worthy person in the entire universe of universes to the very
We, as mortal ascenders, will continue in the enhancement of our love for God in the same way that a child increases its love over time for its earthy parent. The Universal Father forever loves and seeks the welfare of his created sons and daughters just a human father, a real father, a true father loves his earthly children. The very fact of our deepest need for love and affection is more than sufficient to unleash the continual flow of the Father's tender mercies and saving grace.
The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will creature irreplaceable in all eternity. The Father's love glorifies each child of God, illuminating each member of the celestial family, sharply silhouetting the unique nature of each personal being against the impersonal levels that lie outside the fraternal circuit of the Father of all. [UB 12:7:9 (138:4)]
When the mortal child of this heavenly Father dedicates his human will to the doing of the Father's will, the Father responds by making that man more than he is. The Father makes him a son of divine destiny. This consecration of the mortal will constitutes man's choicest gift of supreme value to the Paradise Father.
The love of God becomes individualized to each human soul by the indwelling of the Adjuster, the actual spirit fragment of the Father himself. The indivisibility of the Father does not interfere with the bestowal of his own spirit in the form of Thought Adjusters whose destinies are to live in the hearts of mortal man. This gift of bestowal is the greatest manifestation of the Universal Father's divine love for mortal beings. Spiritually, this gift is a great equalizer by which all men are truly equal in the eyes of God, for the Father loves each and every one of his children with the same fullness of his infinite love. The presence of Father fragment within the intellect of every normal-minded and morally conscious mortal being gives positive assurance of man's divine fellowship with the living God.
The Adjusters reveal a supernal love and spiritual ministry in their relationship to mortal creatures. When an evolving mortal becomes dominated by the love of his fellows and consecrated to unselfish ministry to his brethren in the flesh, then does an Adjuster most effectively indwell the mind of such a mortal minister. The love that this Thought Adjuster brings is the most truly divine affection in all creation. It is touchingly sublime and divinely Fatherlike. There is nothing in the entire universe of universes to compare with their marvelous ministry to the children of the evolutionary worlds.
The Adjusters are the actuality of the Father's love incarnate in the souls of men; they are the veritable promise of man's eternal career imprisoned within the mortal mind; they are the essence of man's perfected finaliter personality, which he can foretaste in time as he progressively masters the divine technique of achieving the living of the Father's will, step by step, through the ascension of universe upon universe until he actually attains the divine presence of his Paradise Father. [UB 107:0:2 (1176:2)]
Man can discover the full extent that God's divine spirit is working in his mind, he can determine that degree to which he is yielding to the teaching and guidance of the heavenly Father's indwelling spirit, by taking account of his growing ability to show forth love for his fellow man. The Father's indwelling presence, along with the assistance of his Son's Spirit of Truth as it is poured out upon all flesh, bears witness to man's intended reality as sons and daughters of God. The spiritual capacity for the reactive growth of the evolving soul is man's enhancing faith in truth and his increasing love for his fellow man.
Considering all that the Father and his Son do for mankind in their combined loving ministry, we not only posses the ability to share this affection with our brothers and sisters, but we also have an opportunity to contribute to the emergence of the Supreme Being. All experiences of love and service in all the universe of universes manifest themselves in the actualization of the Supreme Being.
The motivation of faith makes experiential the full realization of man's sonship with God, but action, completion of decisions, is essential to the evolutionary attainment of consciousness of progressive kinship with the cosmic actuality of the Supreme Being. [UB 110:6:17 (1211:2)]
The
Man can discover the Father in his heart, but he will have to search for the Supreme in the hearts of all other men; and when all creatures perfectly reveal the love of the Supreme, then will he become a universe actuality to all creatures. And that is just another way of saying that the universes will be settled in light and life. [UB 117:6:23 (1290:9)]
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship