| Answer
from Jesus:
Thank you for asking a very
important question. You are quite right that there are many definitions
of love and that there is much confusion concerning love.
Let me begin by talking about human love. As I explain throughout this
website, the real problem on planet Earth is that human beings have
descended into a lower state of consciousness in which they have lost
contact with their spiritual source. The characteristic of this state
of consciousness is that it makes people think everything is relative.
In this state of consciousness people define an image of reality, an
idol, and then they seek to force reality to fit into their belief system,
or world view. They seek to make the world the way they want it to be.
Naturally, this also applies to love.
When human beings define love, they define it in relative terms. For
example, many people define love as the opposite of hatred. However,
hatred is an entirely relative emotion, an entirely human emotion. So
if you define love as the opposite of the relative emotion of hatred,
then what you define as love is also a relative emotion. The consequence
is that human love is always conditional. Human beings tend to define
love based on themselves, based on their current state of consciousness.
This means that each person defines love in the following way: love
is whatever makes me feel good. If you do or say something that does
not make me feel good, then you are not loving me.
This definition is, of course, completely self-centered. Or rather,
it is centered on the lower mind, the carnal mind. Therefore, this definition
of love is out of touch with the reality of divine love.
As I explain elsewhere,
divine love is completely and absolutely unconditional. I also explain
that God is not an angry and
judgmental God. God is a God of unconditional love, and he has nothing
but love for all of his sons and daughters. No matter who you are or
what you have done, God loves you with the same unconditional, infinite
love that God had when he first created your soul, your lifestream.
Nothing you could possibly do, could diminish Gods love for you. Nothing
you could possibly do, could make you unworthy to receive God’s
unconditional love.
However, it is important to understand that God's love is unconditional
precisely because his eyes cannot behold iniquity. God is the ultimate
creative power of this universe. Whatever God looks upon will be magnified
by the immense creative powers of God. Therefore, God simply does not
look at your imperfections. God gave you free will, and as a consequence
of having free will you can choose to enter a state of consciousness
that is below the perfection that God envisioned for you. In that state
of consciousness you might create many imperfections, but God will not
see any of your imperfections. God only sees the perfection that he
created in the beginning. When you sink into imperfection, you sink
below the horizon of God’s vision.
The problem with trying to explain God’s love is that when people
are trapped in a relative state of consciousness, they tend to go into
one of two extremes. The one extreme is that people project human qualities
upon God and therefore imagine that God will judge human judgments.
They imagine that God will judge human beings the way that they themselves
judge others. They also imagine that God will be angry and will want
to punish those who violate his laws, or rather their definition of
God’s laws.
In today's age, a growing number of people are beginning to see through
the fallacy of an angry and judgmental image of God. These people move
out of fear and into a state of consciousness where they can approach
God as a loving God. I highly applaud this development, because it is
truly a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, many of these people
go into the opposite extreme and now begin to believe that because God's
love is unconditional, anything goes. These people begin to believe,
and some of them build elaborate arguments in order to support this
belief, that nothing is really bad, nothing is really evil. Therefore,
they think that human beings can do whatever they want, and it will
be acceptable in the eyes of God.
I must tell you that either of the two extremes I have described are
equally dangerous for the soul. This then brings us to the need to talk
about the different kinds of love. We have talked about human love which
is always conditional. We have talked about God's love which is always
unconditional yet never sees imperfection. We now need to talk about
a third kind of love, which I would like to call Christ love.
Christ love is completely unconditional, just as the love of God. However,
Christ love can indeed behold iniquity. As I stated 2,000 years ago,
the Father does not judge because he has given it to the Son to judge.
The Son of God, the true, rightful and only son of God, is the Christ
consciousness. I embodied that state of mind, but the Christ consciousness
is much more than any individual being, myself included.
The function of the Christ consciousness is to serve as a mediator between
man and God. Therefore, the Christ consciousness, including a person
who has attained Christ consciousness, can judge righteous judgments.
Such a person will know what is the truth and reality of God and what
is out of alignment with that reality.
The function of Christ love is that although it loves every human being
unconditionally, it is not a blind love. Christ love clearly sees when
a person is trapped in a lower state of consciousness that is based
on unreality. The nature of Christ love is that it will not leave such
people alone. The unconditional love of Christ simply will not leave
people trapped in a lower state of consciousness. It wants people to
come up higher so that they can experience the abundant life of God.
Therefore, contrary to popular belief held by so many Christians, Christ
love is not pacifist, it is not soft, it is not touchy-feely, it is
not mushy. Christ love will not make you feel good in a human sense.
Christ love will not leave you where it found you. Christ love will
compel you to come up higher, to change your consciousness so that you
can bring it into alignment with the truth and reality of God. Christ
love will not leave you alone in a lower state of consciousness. It
will not leave you alone until you have changed your consciousness and
come up higher so that you have life, even the abundant life.
Most people are so trapped in the relative state of consciousness that
they can only experience the relative, conditional, human love. When
a person diligently walks the spiritual path, it is possible for such
a person to raise his or her consciousness until the person experiences
the pure, unconditional love of God. Indeed, I encourage all spiritual
seekers to strive for this experience because nothing is more life-transforming
than to experience the unconditional love that God has for your soul.
Yet it is important to understand that the unconditional love of God
cannot be expressed in this world as long as the world is in a state
of imperfection. So what can be expressed in this world is Christ love.
If a person is a sincere spiritual seeker and has shown willingness
to come up higher in consciousness (to let go of the limited state of
consciousness and accept another facet of the truth and the reality
of God) then Christ love can indeed be what most people would call loving.
Yet when a person is out of alignment with the truth of God, then Christ
love will not appear loving in the human sense. Instead, it will be
an active love that will not leave people alone.
If people are trapped in the lower state of consciousness, they will
not experience Christ love as something pleasant. They will experience
it as something highly disturbing, something that simply will not leave
them alone, something that will not allow them to remain comfortable
in their lower state of consciousness.
So the correct way to love is to strive to experience the unconditional
love of God and then to express that love in this world in the form
of Christ love. When a person is trapped in the lower state of consciousness,
that person simply cannot experience or express Christ love. Such a
person can express only the conditional human love.
There are many sincere seekers who begin to have glimpses of the unconditional
love of God, yet they have not understood the difference between the
unconditional love of God and Christ love. Therefore, they think that
they should be unconditionally loving towards anyone whom they meet,
no matter what such people are doing or what state of consciousness
in which they are trapped. This is simply a fallacy, and as I said,
it is going into the opposite extreme from the judgmental conditional
love that most people have experienced.
So the key is to strive for contact with your Christ self, which will
give you the Christ discernment to judge righteous judgments. When you
allow your Christ self to give you this discernment, you will know how
to express Christ love in order to achieve the maximum result in any
given situation.
You see, for people trapped in the human consciousness their goal for
every situation is to make themselves feel as good as possible. However,
for the Christ consciousness the goal for every situation is to produce
maximum spiritual growth for every person. This cannot be done through
a soft and mushy love, but only through the Christ consciousness, which
will not leave people alone in a limited state of mind.
So to truly understand my commandment to love your neighbor as yourself,
you need to understand the nature of Christ love. When you love yourself
with the love of Christ, you are constantly striving to come up higher
in consciousness. You simply will not accept yourself as standing still
in the lower state of consciousness. Consequently, you will apply that
same Christ love to your neighbor, and you will not allow your neighbor
to remain stuck in a lower state of consciousness.
To truly love is to be committed to always producing maximum spiritual
growth in any situation. To truly love yourself and your neighbor is
to constantly strive to bring everyone closer to God, closer to a union
with their source. This union can be achieved only through the Christ
consciousness.
Therefore, true love is that which seeks to bring everyone closer to
the Christ consciousness, even if their human consciousness makes them
feel like you are not living up to their definition of love. You will
see that many people do not like to be disturbed, and they do not take
kindly to receiving a portion of Christ love. Nevertheless, this is
the true love of Christ—to never leave anyone stuck in the human
consciousness.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
