THE RELIGION OF LOVE has been misunderstood, because the concept of love has in many ways been distorted and misrepresented, for the greater part of true love is severity! What is now called love is anything but love! If all so-called love were relentlessly sifted to the bottom, nothing would remain but selfishness, vanity, weakness, desire for ease, conceit or instinct. Genuine love will take no account of what gratifies the other, of what is agreeable to him and gives him joy, but will only direct itself towards what will benefit him, regardless of whether it affords him pleasure or not. That is genuine love and service! If, therefore, it is written: ¡°Love your enemies¡±, it means: ¡°Do that which will benefit them! Punish them if they cannot otherwise be made to understand!¡± That is serving them! But justice must prevail, for love cannot be separated from justice – they are one! Misplaced indulgence would mean fostering the faults of the enemies and thus letting them slide further on the downward path. Would that be love? On the contrary, by acting thus one would burden oneself with guilt! Through the unexpressed wishes of man alone the Religion of Love has deteriorated to a religion of laxity, as also the personality of the Bringer of Truth, Christ Jesus, has been dragged down to one of weakness and yielding, characteristics which He never possessed. It was just because of His all-embracing Love that He was so harsh and severe among the men of intellect. That He was often overcome with sadness is natural when one considers His high mission and the human material He had to deal with. This sadness had nothing whatever to do with weakness. After eliminating all distortions and dogmatic restrictions, the Religion of Love will be a doctrine of the strictest consistency, in which no weakness or illogical indulgence is to be found.
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