Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - The Practice of True Love
1 Nothing is good unless it is in harmony with the essence of God’s love. Love does not focus on its position as a subject partner; rather, it focuses on its object partner. If you focus on yourself, you cannot go the path of love. Suppose you are the leader of a nation; you cannot function in that position if you are all alone; you need to recognize the value of others as your partners. The basic principle underlying the organization of the ideal kingdom of heaven is that within the family, husband and wife openly affirm each other. A man who is not affirmed by his wife can hardly expect to be affirmed in the ideal world. It is a contradiction for a man to seek the world’s public recognition when his wife does not first recognize him. In order for a man to attain world-level recognition with dignity and authority, he should be recognized as the linchpin of his family, without any shortcomings. A family with that kind of man as a head will remain intact and not be divided. Then that family should take the position of subject partner to its tribe and live sacrificially, overcoming challenges for its tribe’s sake. Its purpose should be for the sake of others, not for itself. (46-037, 1971.07.18)
2 The way of love does not go here and there. There is only one way. Is the way of love two or one? It is one. If you go that one way, you can go everywhere. The way of love is the way of purity, the way of tranquility and the way of caution, like a priest making a sacrificial offering. (233-146, 1992.08.01)
The way of true love through self-sacrifice 3 A human life is conceived centering on the ideal of love; therefore, its essence is love. Since our life originates from love, it is Heaven’s principle that we live for the sake of others, just as God does. So we can say that we were born for the sake of true love. True love begins by living for the sake of others. Human beings were originally created to live with God’s true love within their mind and body and to respond to His love directly. Their mind would respond to God centering on true love, and their body naturally would resonate with the mind. The true love of God that they would inherit and experience would be the basis of true unity, where there is no conflict between mind and body. (234-271, 1992.08.26)
4 God’s love is not meant to appear only in the heavenly realm. It must first arise in the physical universe—the created world— and ultimately in human beings. Parents’ love is seen in their children. A husband’s love is seen in his wife; a wife’s love is seen in her husband. This is the mutual commitment of love; this is the direction that love takes. Unless you follow this way, you cannot perfect your love. (083-179, 1976.02.08)
5 For God to love, He must sacrifice Himself. Likewise, for us human beings to love, we need to sacrifice ourselves. This is the way we should go. Why? It is because God goes this way. If we are to go with God, we must go this way. When I as an individual take the path of sacrifice, it leads me to the position where God participates in my family along with me. Next, when my family sacrifices, it earns the right for God to participate with it in the life of the tribe, and so on to the people, the nation, the world and the cosmos. From the time we begin our course in the world of love, as we travel through all the stages on the path of love, we will come to earn these qualifications. This is possible because our life from the beginning is centered on love. It is because we always strive to participate in God’s love and tune ourselves to the direction of His love. This is how we can be free from the realm of the Fall. (097-263, 1978.03.19)
6 The way of love is not to live for oneself but to go the way of self-sacrifice. Love is so powerful that hearing a single word from your beloved can give you the strength to endure ten years of suffering. It is why just a one-word promise from your beloved husband or wife can enable you to persevere through any hardship, for ten years or even for your whole life. The more adversity you face, the more difficulties you overcome and the more misery you endure, the more you cherish that promise of love and the more value it holds on a higher and multidimensional level. (115-191, 1981.11.15)
7 When a husband has a sacrificial heart for his wife and offers her his absolute, self-sacrificial love, his wife will do everything possible to become a good life partner to him. She will not do so unwillingly but joyfully and with sincerity. There is no suffering in it. Her sacrifice does not make her miserable. Instead, it has a sweet and interesting taste. Parents’ love for their children is inevitably accompanied by sacrifice, but they do not demand repayment for it. Parents sacrifice and forget their sacrifice. Sacrificial love is to give and forget how much one has given. God has been giving and sacrificing for humankind, then forgetting how much He gave, how much He sacrificed. This is why Jesus said, “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” (Matt. 6:3) If you give expecting something in return, you are not a real owner of love. If you give and then forget how much you gave, you can be a central person of love. (56-340, 1972.05.18)
8 Let us go the path of love that God wants us to go. Only when we reject the path of the Fall that the devil wants us to go, and follow the path of love that God wants us to go, can we be separated from the devil. We cannot be separated from Satan by our worldly knowledge, by our understanding of doctrine, or by having better skill or wisdom. Love is what enables it. The reason Christianity has endured to this day is because it promotes the way of self-sacrifice, even to the extent that many believers have sacrificed themselves, willing to go the path of martyrdom and shedding their blood. (138-252, 1986.01.24)
9 The way of love is the way of giving yourself to be used by others for a higher purpose. Individuals who have love want to be used by their families, families who have love want to be used by their nation, nations want to be used by the world, the world wants to be used by the cosmos, and the cosmos wants to be used by God. This is the way of true love. (206-222, 1990.10.07)
10 The way of faith requires long endurance; endurance and sacrifice are the way of faith. Human beings have been able to go on living because they have faith in God’s promise of a world of love, and with faith they are willing to endure and sacrifice to attain it. When we are told, “God is love,” we need to understand that within that expression is sacrifice and endurance. (112-051, 1981.03.29)
11 When people love each other—for example, parents and their children— their love knows no seasons. When you weep for the ones you love, your tears transcend spring, summer, autumn and winter. True love transcends youth, middle age and old age. True love follows the track of eternal life, eternal joy and eternal happiness. This world is one of change upon change. Revolutions come and go; life and death come and go. But true love never changes. Therefore, let us always maintain the environment of love in our hearts. To do so, we need a life of prayer. By that we can grow. When going the way of God’s Will and the way of love, prison is not a problem; even death is not a problem. In fact, the way of true love is about overcoming death and difficulties. (277-013, 1996.03.17)
12 There is a power that enables that which is true to exist forever. In order for us connect to it—in order for us to connect eternally to what is beyond time and space—we must be connected to God’s true love. To possess that love, we need to sacrifice ourselves to secure love with our eternal partner. By sacrificing as couples, we should recover the family; by sacrificing as families, we should recover the tribe; by sacrificing as tribes, we should recover the people; by sacrificing as peoples, we should recover the nation; by sacrificing as nations, we should recover the world; by sacrificing as a world, we should recover heaven and earth; and by sacrificing as heaven and earth, we should find God. Even for God, going the way of love requires sacrifice. God sacrifices too. He sacrifices Himself for love. (180-102, 1988.08.07) |