THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 178 -
The path to the true faith.
1
(John) "Genuine, true faith in a person who begins to believe resembles young wine which is put into a wine skin. It soon begins to ferment, if it is the genuine grape juice. Through this fermentation it rids itself of all particles that are not completely wine. Once it has rid itself of all the foreign particles, it will be a pure and strong wine that, so to speak itself life, animates whenever it is enjoyed. However, if you fill the skins with a different fluid, there will be either no fermentation or, at the most, a smelly decomposition that will affect and destroy also the skin.
2
Man's heart however, is like the wine skin; it keeps growing stronger and more alive through the truth, but is forced through falsehood and deceit to finally pass into complete death, since it is also the centre of life.
3
If in your heart you believe that there is a God, you will love Him because in the heart everything is permeated by love. And if you love God, God's highest power has entered into your heart and, thus, into your life.
4
Yet God's power is not somehow limited but pervades the whole everlasting infinity. If in unison with this divine power you are stimulated within your life's ground, the divine power within you is stimulated simultaneously and whatever this wills will happen without fail.
5
To be sure, outwardly I am a man just like you; but in my heart I no longer stand alone, for through my great love for God, His power now dwells within my heart and has become at one with my love. This is why I, aided by the power of God, could see and perceive all that had happened to you and your company on your travels. This is all there is to it.
6
Firstly, you must recognize God. For this purpose you possess an orderly intellect. But the intellect alone is not enough. What you understand you must promptly admit into your heart or into your life, thereby quickening it, and you will then surely be on the right road. - Have you now really understood me?"
7
Says Aziona: "I have indeed understood you. But what must be done if the heart is already filled with every kind of filth, that is, falsehood and deceit? How can this be cast out beforehand?"
8
Says John: "Just accept the truth. It will do its part without your help. Do you worry when gazing into the darkness at midnight whether or not it will yield to the dawn of the coming day? Who will do away with it? I tell you: Do not concern yourself about it. Wait until the sun of day appears; it will swiftly deal with the ever so dense darkness. In the same manner as God works in the great universe, He works within the human heart through His sun of grace and life. "Do you understand that?"
9
Says Aziona: "Yes, I understand it now; but now let me go to some of my neighbors, so that I can tell them openly what I have learned here!"
10
At this our Aziona took his leave and hurried to his neighbors, called loudly and quickly everyone together and told then in minute detail everything that he had now learned, seen and heard.