Tag: Love

Should We Forgive Satan?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2184

In front of God what must you long to become? First, you must become devoted children. Second, you must become loyal subjects and patriots. Is there anyone above loyal subjects and patriots? Saints are higher. Devoted children in the family are absolutely loyal to their parents. Patriots are absolutely loyal to their nation. Then, what kind of people are saints? They are people like Jesus, Buddha and Confucius – people who assert God’s existence, not people who assert themselves. They lead God-centered lives and do not cause any harm, but instead try to benefit humankind. Moreover, they are not nationalists, but rather globalists. (54-214, 1972.3.24)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1638

Why and how did God come into existence? He came into being due to love. How did the origin of the universe come to be realized? The seed of love was assimilated by God as the object partner, with the result that God Himself came to possess internal nature and external form. Based on what did this come about? It was based on love. The same holds true for you. Through the love of your mother and father, you were given the seed of life, the one cell that grew into what you are today; in a similar manner God became the being He is today. His eyes, His nose, and every feature of His were formed in this way. He is exactly the same as us. (207-27, 1990.10.21)

Forgiveness

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Great forgiveness is possible when you have understood the other person’s situation one hundred percent. Because God knows our situations, He forgives us. (2:220, May 26, 1957)

Joseph forgave his brothers, although they were his enemies who had sold him into slavery. Yet Joseph forgave them for his father’s sake, because they were all his father’s sons. Put yourself in Joseph’s position. Like Joseph, we have many enemies, yet we have no choice but to forgive them because they are all the children of our Father, God. We forgive them for God’s sake, because we believe in God. (146:125, June 8, 1986)

Among the countless people I have been leading, many have committed transgressions. I deal with them with the attitude, “I will forgive you one hundred times.” This is the fatherly heart.
    Suppose your own son were arrested as a robber and a murderer and was facing execution. Would you as a parent say, as you watched your son walking toward the execution chamber, “It is a good thing that you are about to die. You should be killed quickly”? No, you would look for every possible way to win him a pardon. That is the heart of a parent. You would forgive him, even a thousand or ten thousand times. (157:259-60, April 10, 1967)

You leaders who live with your members, if one of your members is wrong, do not tell him he is wrong to his face, but look for how you can forgive him. Look at his wife; is she worse than her husband? Look at his children; are they worse than their father? Then look at his mother and father; are they worse than their child? No, among his family some are good people.
    Thus thinking of his family’s good qualities and their love for him, you can find a way to love him. Then the blessings gathered in that family will be joined with you. If you live this way, you will not perish. Heaven will protect you. (308:208, January 5, 1999)

God does not strike someone who is defeated. Rather, God shows mercy to those who recognize their sin and repent. God exists; therefore anyone who raises a sword to strike a defeated person will bring ruin on his descendants. Instead, we should pray for him and give him guidance with the heart of a close friend. (25:333, October 12, 1969)

Among the Christian martyrs who were thrown to the lions in the coliseums of Rome, there were two kinds of people. One kind prayed, “God, take revenge upon my persecutors. Punish them! May they all perish!” Their mind was to resist the unjust Caesar up to the moment of death. The other kind prayed, “Forgive their sins! Forgive the Caesar! May Rome one day become God’s nation on this earth!”
    Compare the destinies of these two kinds of martyrs. Those who prayed for their enemies, for Rome and Caesar, are dwelling in an exalted realm among those who are victorious over Satan. But those who died with the self-centered desire to receive salvation and held a grudge against Rome are dwelling somewhere below the realm of Rome. (130:233, January 29, 1984)

When Jesus taught us to love our enemies, do you think he meant that we should forgive Satan? You should be clear about this question.
    When someone asked him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” If Jesus, the Son of God, could forgive people to that extent, should he not also forgive Satan? Yet he cannot do that; it is impossible.
    When Jesus prayed for his enemies, the object of his prayers was not Satan but rather the people whom Satan invaded. Evil people are merely victims of God’s enemy; therefore he forgave them and sought for them, as God was seeking for them. Yet, this does not mean that he should forgive Satan. (92:187, April 10, 1977) 

O Source of all goodness! I earnestly pray that Thou wilt forgive through Thine infinite love and magnanimity the many religious believers of this nation for their past acts of persecution against the children of the Unification movement. [Because of their actions,] some who joined the movement for a time grew tired and lonely and fell away, unable to endure the persecution, unable to find even one person to console them on the lonely path. And I know that many who remain on the path are exhausted.

Thinking of how they ought to be bowing their heads and begging Thy forgiveness, my indignation against them is hard to bear, and I long to resolve the grudges in Thy heart. Still, thinking about Thy merciful path of restoration, as Thou seekest to recover the children of the enemy, I know that Thou canst not help but bless them again— and therefore I pray that Thou wilt forgive them.

Father, I earnestly ask Thee to please forgive and once again extend Thy grace to the pitiable churches that betrayed Thee. (27:301-02, December 28, 1969)

True Love Gives, Forgets that it Has Given and Continues to Give

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2112

If you go forward with strong conviction, your ancestors will put pressure on your mother or any of your relatives to stop them from opposing you. It is like telling them, “Listen to me!” Why is this so? The original tribal foundation within the realm of goodness can be connected to the True Parents on the national level, and this, in turn, can be connected to the global level in which Satan has been pushed out. As a result, Satan and the fallen evil spirits have begun to retreat and your ancestors in the archangelic spirit world can now help you. (184-91, 1988.12.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1188

As viewed from God’s original ideal of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the first-born son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)

True Love

1. The Nature of True Love

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Continue reading “True Love Gives, Forgets that it Has Given and Continues to Give”

If Anyone Says ‘I Love God, and Hates His Brother, He Is a Liar

Cheon Seon Gyeong 323

Love transcends all national borders, for God’s love knows no boundaries. It is transcendent of the five different races of humankind, drawing no distinction among the black, white and yellow races. That is why the love of God is great. When love begins to flow regardless of the environment in which it is flowing, the environment adapts to this flow and develops. God will be pleased only when we adopt the perspective that can make this happen. That is why we must walk the path of love. (164-93, 1987.4.26)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1100

No one living on earth until this time has ever seen God’s Day, True Parents’ Day, True Children’s Day, and Day of All True Things. There are 365 days in a year. You should clearly understand that the most important days among all 365 days are those days that I have just mentioned, which have now appeared in providential history. You should know that these days are the king of all days, and if a year like that existed it would be the king of all years. (92-252, 1977.4.18)

Chapter 13

Love

True Love

True love is the supreme love. It is highly desired, yet rare in the world. These passages can only begin to describe this ideal love, whose various attributes will be treated at length in the following sections.
Most essentially, true love is grounded in divine love. Love or compassion, being the core of ultimate reality, is manifested by the saint who can rise above self-centered attachments and desires. As God created for the sake of his creatures, so true love is totally committed to the welfare of the beloved. As God is absolute, eternal and unchanging, true love never changes and cannot be defeated by the vicissitudes of life. As God is the parent of all humanity and the creator of all things, so a person with true love is impartial and all-embracing. Therefore, true love is displayed to individuals who are deeply united with God and fulfill God’s purpose for their life.
True love is beyond the reach of most people, who are caught up in self-centered pursuits. Yet it is not so far off, for everyone has within him or herself the potential for love. A parent who gives everything for the sake of his or her children has tasted it. Maybe he had habitually lived for his own pleasure, but with the birth of a child his life goes through a total reorientation—from self to the other, from taking to giving. Parental love is close to God’s true love, and hence we call God our Father. This inborn potential is illustrated by the Chinese character for benevolence (仁), which contains elements signifying “two (二) people (人)”; the same elements that are combined to make the character for heaven (天). Thus love is innate in our being, through love God dwells with us, and by loving we resemble God.

1. The Nature of True Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
    Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
    Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
    1 Corinthians 13
 
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us…
    There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
    1 John 4.7-12, 18-20
 
The infinite joy of touching the Godhead is easily attained by those who are free from the burden of evil and established within themselves. They see the Self in every creature and all creation in the Self. With consciousness unified through meditation, they see everything with an equal eye.
    I am ever present into those who have realized Me in every creature. Seeing all life as My manifestation, they are never separated from Me. They worship Me in the hearts of all, and all their actions proceed from Me. Wherever they may live, they abide in Me.
    When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union.
    Bhagavad-Gita 6.28-32 (Hinduism)
 
 
 

God Divided People into Two Different Sexes for Love

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Cheon Seon Gyeong 1747

Love is eternal. There cannot be two
loves that are eternal but only one. When
man and woman are bound together
through love, they should live togeth-
er in happy union while on earth until
parted by death. Even after death they
should live together eternally. Although
there are two bodies, they attain oneness
by reuniting. When the two bodies unite,
they are to revolve around God, thereby
establishing the four-position founda-
tion of love; that is the ideal world. False
love cannot invade this world, and only
true love will dwell there. (Blessing – 344)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1191

In order to restore the right of the
eldest son, you have to go out to the
frontline where Satan persecutes you
and tries to kill you. You have to go there
in order to fight and subjugate people
with love, and teach them about every-
thing that we know. When they real-
ize that our tradition is good, they will
naturally be inspired, repent with tears;
and pledge to give their life as an offer-
ing for you. You must know that there is
no other way to obtain the right of bless-
ing from the Cain world. (131-182, 1984.5.1)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 2

Cause and Effect

2. The Chain of Causation

The world exists because of causal actions,
all things are produced by causal actions and
all beings are governed and bound by causal
actions. They are fixed like the rolling wheel
of a cart, fixed by the pin of its axle shaft.
Sutta Nipata 654 (Buddhism)

Rousing himself from his concentration of mind,
the Exalted One gave close attention to causal
uprising in direct order:
This being, that becomes; by the arising
of this, that arises, namely: Conditioned by
ignorance, activities; conditioned by activities,
consciousness; conditioned by consciousness,
mind and body; conditioned by mind and
body, the six sense-spheres; conditioned by
the six sense-spheres, contact; conditioned by
contact, feeling; conditioned by feeling, craving;
conditioned by craving, grasping; conditioned by
grasping, becoming; conditioned by becoming,
birth; conditioned by birth, old age and death,
grief, lamentation, suffering, sorrow and despair
come into being. Thus is the arising of this mass
of Ill. 23
Udana 1.1 (Buddhism)

The ten thousand things all come from the same
seed, and with their different forms they give
place to one another. Beginning and end are part
of a single ring and no one can comprehend its
principle. This is called Heaven the Equalizer.
Chuang Tzu 27 (Taoism)

Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recom-
pense, to repay every one for what he has done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the
last, the beginning and the end.
Revelation 22.12-13

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

In everything, there is cause and effect. The effect appears as the result of a process. Passing through that process is a condition for the effect to become one with its cause. This is because the process is aligned with the cause and accepts the effect. It brings them to the point where they can unite and fulfill their purpose. Conversely, without a proper beginning, there can be no destination. (15:130, October 3, 1965)

The relationship between the world of essence and the world of phenomena can be compared to that between mind and body. It is a relationship of cause and result. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Introduction)

God abides in the causal realm and in the resultant world. He is “the Alpha and the Omega,” who exists as both the cause and the result.
By recognizing that human beings exist within a process that moves from cause to result, we can understand the relationship between God and humanity. History proceeds from the causal world to the resultant world. The human conscience also proceeds along this path, but [these days] the flow of history is so fast that the conscience must hurry twice as quickly to keep pace.
God, being the Cause, must establish human beings as the result. If [the first] human beings had not fallen, they would have been the cause of history. The Fall was a failure to possess the cause. (11:114, February 19, 1961)

Just as subject and object partners must become one, the cause and the result must also become one. In the Bible, God states: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” If God is the Alpha, we human beings are the Omega. If God is the first, we are the last, and if God is the beginning, then we are the end. Should the two remain separated? The verse promises that they are to unite. (69:76, October 20, 1973)

Anyone who denies the Origin cannot bring a result. The origin of all children is their [Heavenly] Parent, but if the children deny their Parent, it is logical that they cannot become an acceptable result. When the cause and the result become one, the ideal appears, full of joy. (328:185, August 3, 2000)

When a man connects with his wife in all aspects of her life [and vice-versa], the two become one. First they orbit around each other; then they meet. When they meet, they are elevated. In other words, a man and a woman meet together by living for the sake of each other. Then, once they marry, they should sacrifice for God. We call this origin-division-union action. God divided people into two different sexes for love; therefore they should come together for love. Thus, their union should also be the unity of cause and result. Where the cause and the result became one, there can be a seed. Thus there arises an endless cycle of give and take between cause and result. Their oneness is the basis for a unified world. (389:303, August 7, 2002)

We Exist as Women and Men Because of Love

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1 Timothy 3

6 They must not be new followers of the Lord. If they are, they might become proud and be doomed along with the devil. 7 Finally, they must be well-respected by people who are not followers. Then they won’t be trapped and disgraced by the devil.

8 Church officers[d] should be serious. They must not be liars, heavy drinkers, or greedy for money. 9 And they must have a clear conscience and hold firmly to what God has shown us about our faith. 10 They must first prove themselves. Then if no one has anything against them, they can serve as officers.

11 Women[e] must also be serious. They must not gossip or be heavy drinkers, and they must be faithful in everything they do.

12 Church officers must be faithful in marriage.[f] They must be in full control of their children and everyone else in their home. 13 Those who serve well as officers will earn a good reputation and will be highly respected for their faith in Christ Jesus.

Job 42

13 In addition to seven sons, Job had three daughters, 14 whose names were Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren Happuch. 15 They were the most beautiful women in that part of the world, and Job gave them shares of his property, along with their brothers.

16 Job lived for another one hundred forty years—long enough to see his great-grandchildren have children of their own— 17 and when he finally died, he was very old.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 2

Truth and Universal Law

Eternal Truth

3. The Law of Love

Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and
Mother of the universe, including man.
Science and Health, p. 256 (Christian Science)

Love is the great law that rules this mighty and
heavenly cycle, the unique power that binds
together the diverse elements of this material
world, and the supreme magnetic force that
directs the movements of the spheres in the
celestial realms. Love reveals with unfailing and
limitless power the mysteries latent in the uni-
verse. Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned
body of mankind, the establisher of true civili-
zation in this mortal world, and the shedder of
imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race
and nation.
‘Abdu’l Bahá (Bahá’i Faith)

That which lets now the dark (yin), now the
light (yang) appear is Tao.
As continuer, it is good. As completer, it is the
essence.
The kind man discovers it and calls it benevo-
lence (jen).
The wise man discovers it and calls it wisdom.
The people use it day by day and are not aware
of it, for the way of the superior man is rare.
It manifests itself as benevolence but conceals
its workings.
It gives life to all things, without sharing the
anxieties of the holy sage.
Its glorious power, its great field of action, are
of all things the most sublime.
It possesses everything in complete abundance:
this is its great field of action.
It renews everything daily: this is its glorious
power.
I Ching, Great Treatise 1.5 (Confucianism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The universe is created centering on love and the principles of love. It dances to that rhythm, not to the rhythm of the individual. (131:124, April 22, 1984)

The omniscient and omnipotent God, who has no need for gold or knowledge, the God who has everything—what was it He yearned for that He would create human beings? What was the fundamental motivation for the act of creation? It was not power, it was not knowledge, and it was not wealth. What God lacked was a foundation for love. Even God cannot bring about love by Himself. Thus, the motivation for the creation of the heavens and the earth was love. (149:149, November 21, 1986)

The creation of the universe began with love. Love preexisted the creation. If the idea of love did not exist, then there would have been no purpose to the principle of male and female. The mineral kingdom consists of positive and negative ions—like male and female. The world of insects consists of male and female. The animal world consists of male and female. Human beings, likewise, are men and women. Before the principle of male and female, there was the idea of love, that things made male and female would become one through love. If the idea of love didn’t exist, this universe pervaded by the duality of male and female would not have arisen. Which came first: male and female physical beings or the emotion and idea of love? This is the old philosophical problem of Realism vs. Idealism… We should know that the idea of love came first. Women are not born for their own sake. Men are not born for their own sake. They both exist for the sake of love. For this reason, the chief concern of both men and women is love. (218:339-40, August 22, 1991)

The created world contains subject and object partners, and for this reason there are men and women and male and female creatures. The subject-object relationship is found in flowers with stamen and pistil, in molecules with positive and negative ions, and in atoms with protons and electrons. Everything exists in a pair system. Nothing else but love fulfills the value and carries on the history of existing beings. Through love men and women procreate. Other beings—insects, plants, and minerals—also love according to their kind. Why is everything in a pair system? Why are there always subject and object partners? The reason is love. Which came first, love or subject and object partners? Does love exist because there are women and men, or do we exist as women and men because of love? Which is it? We exist as women and men because of love. (227:268, February 14, 1992)

Without God’s investment of love, the cosmos could not have come into being. The law of the cosmos is that the subject partner lives for the sake of the object partner. However, in the fallen world, the subject does not live for the sake of the object; instead, the subject misuses the object for his own sake. That is why the world is destined to decline. Religions must teach the heavenly principle that you are happy only when your counterpart is happy. (271:70, August 21, 1995)