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 230 -
The path to salvation.
1
(The Lord) "You see from this that even God, if He had not given Himself out of Himself the counter-pole which is endlessly great for your comprehension, would not have been able to call forth from Himself and set up any creation as existent materially, because the great counter-pole is creation itself. This must be so established, firmly, as good as dead and constant, if it should correspond to the purpose set by the creator. And because it is what it is and how, it is also good in God's eyes. It is only evil in man's eyes in its effect because these have the designation in the soul and in part also in the flesh, as a being woken from death for eternity with the pure, positive spirit from God to unite with God, without thereby ever giving up its most absolute freedom and independence.
2
Now indeed the most important of all life questions comes forth of its own accord and asks: What does man therefore have to do and to observe in order to protect his soul from the return to the old judgment of matter, which is dead?
3
He should observe exactly the Ten Commandments given to the people through Moses, which however consist very briefly of one believing firstly in a true God, loving Him above all with all the forces of life, but loving his brothers and sisters like himself and in emergency even more!
4
In these in reality only two commandments, lies however the whole Mosaic law, as well as all the prophets who have taught nothing other than only the same with many words for the sake of greater understanding.
5
Whoever does that will certainly keep his heart and thus also his soul safe from every arrogance, every hardness, from anger, hate, selfishness, envy, greed, graspingness, domineeringness and worldly wellbeing and love for the world and thus enter easily the pole of life of the divine spirit; for love for God fills the whole person with the spirit of divine love, and the love for one's neighbor embodies and strengthens the same in the soul, whereby it then becomes necessarily identical with God Himself through the spirit of God's love in it.
6
But if it is identical to God, it will also be identical with the positive pole of life in God that has now been made known to you all and will reign with Him over all matter, from which it will never possibly be able to be caught and consumed.
7
Whoever follows this will also reap what has now been shown to you most clearly and eternally keep it in constant increase. Now tell Me, My dear Epiphan, how you have understood and taken this in!"