Children, Love One Another

Children, Love One Another

Emotional Maturity, Forgiveness, and the Choice of Possibility

There is a legend that in his extreme old age, the Apostle John would say only four words:

“Children, love one another.”

Many thought he had fallen into senility. Leo Tolstoy saw something far deeper—he saw wisdom distilled to its purest form.

Because when consciousness matures, language simplifies.

Truth no longer needs complexity.

It becomes essence.

And the essence of all human evolution is this: love is the highest intelligence.

Not sentimental love.

Not performative love.

But regulated, integrated, embodied love.

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Why we fail to live what we know

People don’t hurt others because they are evil.

They hurt because they are emotionally unintegrated.

Most of humanity is still developmentally young on the inside—

children in adult bodies, acting from unprocessed emotion, inherited pain, and unconscious reaction.

That is why Jesus said:

“Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they do.”

He wasn’t talking about ignorance of facts.

He was talking about ignorance of self.

When someone has not learned to process, interpret, and integrate their emotions, they act from survival—not from love.

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The law of inner state

Here is a simple psychological truth:

When the inner state is peace, love, and joy, it becomes impossible to harm, compare, or compete.

Violence comes from inner chaos.

Comparison comes from inner lack.

Cruelty comes from inner pain.

When the nervous system becomes coherent, harm no longer makes sense.

It becomes illogical.

This is not morality.

This is biology meeting consciousness.

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The two thieves: a mirror of every soul

On the cross beside Jesus were two thieves.

Most see a historical scene.

I see a psychological and spiritual map.

One thief represents resentment and bitterness—

the part of us that says, “Life failed me.”

The other represents possibility and transformation—

the part of us that says, “Even now, I can choose differently.”

Same suffering.

Same cross.

Different consciousness.

Every human being stands between these two states in moments of pain.

We either collapse into grievance

or rise into meaning.

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Love is not a command — it’s a result

Tolstoy gives us the destination:

Love one another.

Jesus gives us the bridge:

Forgive them.

Psychology gives us the mechanism:

Integrate the inner world.

Love is not something we force.

Love is what naturally emerges when the emotional system matures.

Until then, forgiveness becomes the training ground,

and possibility becomes the daily choice.

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In the language of transformation

This is the real path:

    •    Shape — raw emotion, unintegrated reaction

    •    Form — awareness, interpretation, conscious regulation

    •    Love — integration, coherence, embodied peace

Love is not where we start.

Love is what we become.

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Final truth

The Apostle John was not repeating himself in old age.

He was refining his message.

And the refinement of all wisdom is this:

Love is not a moral demand.

It is the natural outcome of emotional maturity.

Until then, forgiveness is our bridge,

and possibility is our power.

— Juan Vargas