The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the region of Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 210 -
The trial of the heartless in the beyond.
So always gather treasures which cannot be eaten away by the moths and cannot be destroyed by rust and decay.
2
Beware of the goods and treasures of this world, for in these rests the evil spirit of temptation to all sins.
3
If you pray to God and say in your heart: 'Father in Heaven, lead us not into temptation,' then say, think and wish that He would not provide you abundantly with earthly goods and treasures, but ask Him only for the daily bread. Then He will not withhold it from you since He knows best what you need.
4
If you love God above all according to My teaching, and thus also love one another, as every person loves himself and takes care of his own well being in all possible ways, you will never have to complain among each other concerning some need, for the need and the poverty among the people on this Earth exist simply and solely because of their mutual lack of love. And that is always the result of unbelief or dark superstition. For he who does not belief in the one, eternal only true God, then how will he honor Him and love Him above all, and from that love, his fellowman as himself?
5
The one who is largely provided with the treasures of the Earth, surely sees his poor fellowman, but because he himself does not have to suffer any want, he says: 'I am provided, what do I care about the others. Let everyone take care of himself. Then he will not have to suffer any want.'
6
But to such person I will say later: 'Why did you so much more take care of you than for your fellowman and have by that taken away from the others what is due to them from Me? Therefore, you will now in My Kingdom be forsaken and you will have to endure great poverty and want.'
7
And if he will excuse himself with the remark that he did not believe in Me because no one informed him in the right manner about Me, I will say to him: 'Then who informed you about a right according to which you, because you are stronger, could take away the goods of the Earth from your fellowmen who had the same right to possess what is necessary, and have piled them up for yourself? Did you not have to act according to the correct understanding and the right that is proclaimed before everyone's eyes and ears by the arrangement of the Earth and its nature, since you clearly should have noticed that the Earth with its goods are and should not only be for you alone but also for everyone else?
8
Since you disregarded what your understanding should have stirred you up, therefore, here in My Kingdom the need and poverty of your soul will also be disregarded.
9
But if you say that you could not believe in an only true God because no one informed you in the right manner, then I will say to you: 'Now look what a terrible liar you are. Do you perhaps think that those who are really filled with God's Spirit and are enlightened, are, just like the worldly revelers like you, overflowing in all the treasures and goods of this Earth? O, then you are terribly mistaken.
10
They came to the door of your house as poor and needy people and wanted to inform you of the one, only true God, but you did not want to let them come to you from greedy fear that you would have to give them something in return, or that finally you would have given them voluntarily if you possibly were converted by them to the unshakable faith in the one, only true God.
11
But to prevent feeling obliged to give them something after a possible conversion, you did not want to be converted at all, and because of your greediness you did not want to receive a true message about the one, only true God by means of a person that was enlightened by God.
12
Now if this is so and not otherwise, then how can you find excuses in front of Me by saying that you were not able to heed your poor fellowman because in your lack of information about God you did not notice any obligation to them. In this manner you have, by your greediness, in the first case trampled on the right of nature, to which even all the better gentiles are conforming themselves, but in the second case, in which you make excuses before Me, you are a liar. So here you will receive the reward of greediness and that of a liar. And from now on, my chosen ones will just as little think about you as you have thought about an only true God in the material world, and as you have loved Him above all, as well as your fellowmen.'
13
The seed for the true knowledge of God and the living faith in Him is in the first place the love for fellowman, and in that, also the pure love for God.
14
However, if someone is already so heartless that he cannot even lovingly help his poor fellowman whom he can see, then how will he, in the hard blindness of his soul, be able to love God whom he impossibly can and want to see and be aware of?
15
Look, in this way no unrepentant sinner can excuse himself later before Me, since it has been given from Me to everyone to come to know the truth and its goodness - for the gentile by the knowledge of the obvious things and circumstances in the great kingdom of nature, and for the Jew by way of extraordinary revelations.
16
Therefore, I say to you once more: when you ask the Father in Me for something in My name, then ask Him most of all for the imperishable treasures of the Kingdom of God. Then you will receive them, and together with that, also what you need to live on this Earth.
17
Let him, who received much earthly goods, manage them according to the will of the love of the Father. Then, being a loyal manager over small things, he will be appointed over great things in My Kingdom."
18
After this rather long speech of Mine to the people from Joppe, they thanked Me very heartily, but not so much with outer gestures anymore. And with great love and humility the fisherman asked Me if they had to start already today on their way back home, since they were again completely healthy and strong men.
19
And I said: "As far as I am concerned, you will not be forced to travel home or to stay longer here, but after the morning meal, at some opportunity, you surely can use it to travel home."
20
When the fisherman heard this, he was glad, for he had a burning desire to relate at home about all the things which he and his companions experienced here.