The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 53 -
The main features of the teaching of Jesus.
I say to Ribar, "But now what about your judgment about what you have just seen?"
2
Ribar says, "I have just explained myself to Suetal and I now recognize that most wise Mathael is quite right in all things. The test has been done and nothing further is now needed! I no longer simply believe, instead I have seen it with my own eyes, and now I would like to get to know the great Master myself!"
3
Suetal says, "Yes, I would like that too, if it could be so easy, although I no longer insist upon it quite so much; for what I have now seen is enough for me for my whole life! He cannot be more than God, but according to what has happened, he cannot be much less either! And that is enough for me; I would only like to hear something about his new teaching!"
4
I say, "Mathael has also already given you several essential points about that; anyway his teaching can be very briefly summarized in that one should love God above everything and love one"s neighbor as oneself.
5
But of course, to love God above everything also means to recognize God and His revealed will and then act accordingly out of true inner love to the recognized God, and for God"s sake behave towards every other person as every reasonable person behaves towards himself; naturally we are speaking here about the pure love, as unselfish as possible, both towards God as well as towards every neighbor.
6
As everything good wants to be loved purely because it is good and therefore true, God also wants to be loved because He alone is highly good and highly true!
7
But your neighbor must likewise be loved because he is the reflection of God, just as you are, and just as you he carries a divine spirit in himself.
8
You see, that is the actual core of his teaching and it is easy to observe, yes, very much easier than the thousand laws of the temple which are mostly filled with the exploitation of its servants.
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Through the most exact observance of this new teaching as is possible, the spirit bound within a person will become freer and freer, it grows and finally penetrates the whole person and pulls into its life everything that is a life of God and therefore must last eternally, and in the highest possible holiness as well!
10
But every person who is in a certain way reborn in his spirit will never see death, neither feel or taste it, and the freedom from his flesh will be the greatest bliss to him.
11
For the spirit of a person, fully one with his soul, resembles a person in prison, through whose narrow light hole he can look out onto the beautiful surface of the Earth and see how free people cheer themselves with all sorts of useful occupations, while he must still languish in prison. But how glad he will be if the prison keeper comes, opens the door, frees him from all shackles and says to him: Friend, you are free from every further punishment, go now and enjoy full freedom!
12
So the spirit of a person resembles the fruit of an embryonic bird in the egg; once it has become mature through incubation inside the hard shell binding its free life, it breaks through the shell and enjoys its free life.
13
But man can only achieve such things through the exact and honest observance of the teaching which the Savior of Nazareth announces to the people.
14
But now man, if he is reborn in the spirit more and more, also receives other perfections, which simple natural fleshly people cannot imagine.
15
The spirit is a power in itself, like the divine one; whatever such a perfected spirit in a person wants, that will happen and must happen because there can be no other power and might in the whole of God"s infinity except for the life force of the spirit!
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For the true life is alone the Lord and Creator, Governor, Lawgiver and guide of all creatures, and everything must therefore be led by the power of the eternal single living spirit.
17
You have now seen the disciple"s test of this, and so you can believe Me for the moment that that is how it is. But the insight about the How, Whereby and Why will only come to you when you have achieved freedom for your innermost spiritual life.
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But Mathael has already shown you enough what insight an even half reborn spirit can achieve, and so you now have tangible proof in your hands for everything and therefore with great care you can decide your life accordingly. Are you satisfied with this explanation?"
19
Suetal says, "Friend much more satisfied than with the explanation by the quite annoyingly wise Mathael! What you have now said to me is just as wise as everything that I heard from the mouth of Mathael and in a certain respect it is even wiser; but in front of Mathael one becomes anxious and afraid, because one doesn't really see any in or out. But now with very simple words you have at least made the issue so clear that I cannot think of anything clearer; I now know exactly what I have to do and what I must necessarily achieve, and so I am fully satisfied since I have no further questions."