The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Der Herr in der Stadt am Nebo
- Chapter 225 -
About saving.
On this, the innkeeper asked Me: "Lord and Master, what about the virtue of saving, which is also part of the important life's principles of the Romans? For there is a saying: 'He who saves when he is young will not suffer poverty when he is old', and this life's principle is also known to the Jews, almost more than among the Romans."
2
On that, I said: "The Romans know also another life's principle which sounds as follows: 'In medio beati', or: 'The golden middle way'. I say to you that saving in the right way is a virtue as long as it does not go too far and as long as a fellowman who lives close to a too thrifty person will not be somehow disadvantaged, for if the latter is the case because of thriftiness, it will stop to be a virtue, it will easily turn into miserliness and will thus become a vice.
3
Therefore, I prefer many a person who manages his possessions very generously, but not exaggerated, instead of someone who saves too much, for an excessively spending person will also give something to his fellowmen, and his error is only that he often uses his earthly possessions very unwisely, because by that he does more bad than good.
4
A very thrifty person will finally give no good thing to anyone anymore, will scrape everything together for himself, saying that one has to take care of his house and family. But I say to you: let the fire of your love for your family be like a light that one illuminates during the night, but let your love for the children of other poor parents be like a big blazing fire by which a large region in the whole environment will be illuminated.
5
The one who will observe what I have said now concerning his domestic thriftiness will receive happiness and blessings in abundance from Me in every respect, and that happiness and those blessings will from then on also stay with his house and his family. The one who will not observe this life's principle that I have now explained will experience that his children and relatives will very soon and often waste in a neglectful manner what he has gathered and will then soon have to suffer all kinds of need and misery. So, be reasonable and wise in everything that you do according to My teaching and think deeply about the effects and the final result of your actions."
6
The innkeeper said on that: "O Lord and Master, I thank You from the deepest of my heart for this very wise lesson, and I am all the more happy about it because to a certain degree this was already part of my life's principles since my youth, and it will more and more become part of it in the future."
7
On this, the supreme judicial city officer said: "Lord and Master, also I will imprint this deeply in my heart and will also practice that my love for my wife and children will have to become like a true light, but with my love for the children of other, poor parents I want to put a whole city into flames, and the light of that fire will illuminate everything in the whole wide environment. Is this right, Lord and Master?"
8
I said: "This you will very well know when you will act according to My Word. Therefore, act and live."