By Seppo Kanerva, President, Urantia Foundation.
God is love.
. . . love is the greatest thing in the universe . . .
Love is the desire to do good to others.
Said Jesus: "If you love your fellows as I have loved you, then shall all men know that you are my disciples." "And so I give you this new commandment: That you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you thus love one another."
. . . for years his [the aged Apostle John's] only utterance was, "My little children, love one another."
Jesus' great commandment to his apostles to love one another the way he had loved them, and the additional incentive that in loving one another the apostles will simultaneously proclaim to "all men" that they are Jesus' disciples, is equally a commandment to our Urantia community. If we love one another, the world will know that we are Jesus' disciples. If believers in the revelation love one another, the world will one day note our love and recognise us, and maybe be attracted to the revelation because it seems to work wonders in its adherents. Our strife-torn community is now, slowly but steadily, progressing on the path of putting the past finally behind and seeking ways to be lovingly together and to work in harmony. We are slowly but steadily beginning to desire to do good to others in the community. If we desire to act and work together with the multiplicity of different personalities of the community, love is the secret of success. Love is the secret of beneficial association between personalities. Love is the supreme relationship. We are little by little achieving this "supreme relationship" as we are, more and more, understanding the motives and sentiments of our fellows in the community, and that is a prerequisite and the beginning of genuine, unselfish love. Love is infectious and contagious, love is more catching than hate; if our community is a loving community, "all men" will be attracted to us. On the other hand, if "all men" continue to see a strife-torn community, they will, in disgust, turn away from us and away from the revelation.
It has always been "politically correct" in our circles to profess love, to give it lip-service. True love though wells up, not from the lips, but rather from the heart. If love is not genuine and authentic, it is only a sentiment, a philosophic distortion, a psychic illusion, a spiritual deception. True love is from God, and we receive the divine affection only if we in turn bestow this love upon our fellows.
The aspects of how outsiders view us and the concern of the overall health of the community are not the only considerations. Love is the force and power that makes the community alive. Love is eternally creative. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured; it is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving. Love, thus, is the engine that will keep our community active, always moving, always alive, always thrilling.
I love you.