In the Light of Truth

13. The religion of love

The Religion of Love has been misunderstood, because the idea of what love is, has so often been disfigured and distorted. The greater part of love is severity. What is now called love is anything but love. If all so-called love were sifted to the bottom, nothing would remain but selfishness, vanity, weakness, indolence, conceit or instinct.

Genuine love will take no account of what gratifies the other, of what is agreeable to him and affords him satisfaction, but will only be guided by what is useful to him, without considering whether it affords him pleasure or not. That is real love and service.

If, therefore, it is written: love your enemy, it means: do that which is useful to him. Punish him if he cannot otherwise be made to understand. That is serving him. But justice must prevail, for love cannot be separated from justice. Misplaced indulgence would mean fostering the faults of the enemy and thus letting him slide further on the downward path. Would that be love? On the contrary, by acting thus, one would burden oneself with guilt. By reason of man's expressed wish, the Religion of Love has deteriorated to a Religion of Laxness, as also the person of the Bringer of Truth, Jesus Christ, has been distorted so as to appear weak, yielding and effeminate, which He never was. It was just because of His great love that He was austere and harsh to the men of intellect — the Scribes and Pharisees.

That He was often overcome by sadness is natural, when one considers His sacred mission and then the species of mankind He had to deal with. There was absolutely no effeminacy about it. After eliminating all marring and dogmatic restrictions, the religion of love will be strictly consistent. No weakness or illogical compliance will be found in it.