The Spiritualization of Human Love
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series
where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years,
the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them
with you. This morning we will ponder our lives as we seek to understand the meaning of the
spiritualization of human love.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Spiritualization of Human Love
Jesus said: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." John, Chapter 15, Verses 13 and 14.
And thus the spiritual task lies before us: to be perfect even as Jesus is perfect. If we achieve this
divine perfection, we will willingly pay the supreme price of laying down our lives for our brothers
and sisters in loving and merciful service even as He did. From our temporal perspective, we are far
from this achievement--far from divine spiritual perfection. But a journey of a thousand miles begins
with one single step. Our journey from spiritual imperfection to spiritual perfection also must begin
with a single step: taking the wholehearted step of dedicating and consecrating our wills to doing the
Father's will.
To better appreciate where we are in this journey, let us examine human love, for Jeremiah has well
said of the natural human heart that it is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." It is this
human love that must become spiritually perfected. God is love, and we must become like He is.
Human love by nature is selfish; divine love is unselfish. Often times this human love is unwise.
Sometimes when we love others, rather than that love being uplifting, it contributes instead to
someone's downfall. We know that divine love is always uplifting. It always makes us better than
what we were.
Our human love grows out of the satisfaction that results from being in right relationship with others.
This relationship is based upon selfish considerations. This is my daughter. This is my son. This is
my husband or wife. These loved ones usually do something for or to us. They make us feel good
about ourselves, and when they disappoint us we feel badly. The selfishness of our human love is
demonstrated clearly when we suffer the loss of one of our dear ones. During the grief process, we
sometimes refuse to be comforted. We completely overlook others that the Father has sent for us to
love or be loved by. It's as if we say "if I can't love the one I want, I won't love anyone else". Our
human love covets, isolates, separates its object of affection from others. Human love does not wish
to share. It confuses moral mandates with selfishness and considers one a measure of the other. It
fails to realize that true love, divine love, enhances and upsteps all moral obligations and transforms
them into joyous privileges.
Our human love wears and tears on the self, becoming burdened by increasing jealousy, envy, anger,
misunderstanding, fear, ceaseless watchcare over the love object that might leave us at any moment.
Human love is rife with insecurity. But still it is human love that divine love seeks to transform.
Were it not for the starting point of human love, we could never conceive of divine love--that
unselfish affection that causes one to lay down his life for his friends.
Divine love blossoms in our souls when under the urge of the Father's spirit and the Spirit of Truth,
we become aware of true morality. We realize that all human beings are related to each other and are
a part of the whole, and further that the progress of the whole is tied up with the progress of the
individual. We finally realize that we are all in this struggle together, that the good we do benefits
all, and evil brings tribulation to all. We finally realize that it is in our best interest to be concerned
with the progress of all individuals rather than with a few closely related individuals. Thus it is seen
that the true interest of the self is served by being concerned with the interest of other selves.
Under the influence of the Father's spirit and the Spirit of Truth, human love is gradually
spiritualized as it learns first to unselfishly love those closely associated with it, and later learns to
love unselfishly those at a distance. As the urge to love unselfishly grows in us stronger every day,
the consecrated sons and daughters of the Father, our souls are pulled closer and closer to the Father
through His Son, Jesus, even so close that we become one with Him through Jesus Nothing can stand
in the way of this growing urge, and all fall before it. Such is the nature of its power. This love even
loves its enemies and is always on the lookout for those who are devoid of this divine affection.
This love, when perfected, causes us to forget about ourselves as we become lost in the Father. All
sorts of personal difficulties are overcome under the transforming power of this love. It may not
change our material realities, but it certainly changes our attitudes toward the problems at hand. We
begin to place our problems in their proper perspectives. No longer are we preoccupied with
problems of self, but are lost in the overwhelming zeal of being helpful to others, even loving. This
love creates a consciousness of supreme pleasure and supreme satisfaction that the Father is pleased,
along with the realization that the Father loves us, and that we are getting closer and closer to the
Father everyday, becoming like Him in the process. Our love has become spiritualized, and we have
obeyed the eternal command in spirit and are now ready to lay down our lives in loving service to
our brothers and sisters.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of the spiritualization of human love.
We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
The Spiritualization of Human Love
