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 78 -
The development of free will. The disadvantages of excessive zeal.
1
(The Lord:) "All egoists and those craving power are living proof already on this earth that life's highest bliss consists in the very possession of unfettered freedom of will and its most successful actual effectiveness.
2
Many a man willingly parts with his possessions in order to gain some influence. Who would hate crown, throne and scepter, particularly if he can attain them himself?
3
What gives these three effective rulers such an immense value in men's eyes? The answer is quite obvious and to the point: Because the one sitting on the throne may - and can - make the freest and in the world most effective use of his will among millions of people.
4
But next to the one sitting on the throne, everyone appointed to some office by the ruler will be immensely happy because he can, even though only in the name of the ruler, play at being a lesser ruler and give a little more rein to his freedom-loving will. To be sure, he vigorously suppresses his own absolutely free will, substituting it with the ruler's will, even though in his own mind he often does not agree with the same; but all this he does so that he can also rule a little and make his will effective in some way. For, higher government officials in particular find now and again occasion to exercise their own free will, and this is for man sublime bliss already on this earth.
5
Yet, what can this be compared to that bliss which will, and must, result for all infinity and eternity from the merging of the human will, which is here always very limited, with the will of God?
6
You will understand that, before this can happen, the human will must be seriously developed - through the wisest guidance - in all stages of life, as otherwise it would certainly be exceedingly dangerous to endow man's free will with effective and absolute power.
7
] In order to enable man's will to achieve this, one has to make sure that man will spontaneously enter the path of light, following it with all love and self-denial where the world is concerned, until he has reached the right goal through his own actions and full self-determination.
8
This can be achieved neither through an outer nor an inner compulsion, each of which is a judgment through which no human spirit can ever become free as far as his will is concerned; but as long as he cannot do that, there is not a chance of a uniting of his will with the freest will in God.
9
It is, therefore, first of all necessary to lead the people solely through the wisest instruction into the true cognition of self and of the only true Deity, and this with all possible kindness, patience and gentleness. Only stubborn, unmanageable characters, which are secretly possessed by a senseless, evil wantonness and a truly devilish malicious pleasure, must be routed through an external worldly judgment, but they must on no account be punished too soon through some miraculous act.
10
However, at the same time it must always be deeply considered that the one to be punished is also a human being who is to be guided to a proper use of his free will, and that possibly a cunning and revengeful demon may have gained control over his body, thus turning the otherwise perhaps quite harmless man into a veritable monster.
11
Therefore, any zeal carried to excess, even in the worthiest cause, must be restrained until that modest maturity has been reached which strives with all available means to set to work irresistibly and quietly and with loving care and wisdom, taking everything into account, that is, always considering the living subject it has to deal with, in all its circumstances and stages of development.
12
You surely must by now fully realize that your institute, such as it is, does not please Me at all. Yet, if it were based on a hundred even worse principles than it now is, it would be just as unwise to suspect and suddenly destroy it, as it would be now to annihilate, in an instant, Jerusalem or the exceedingly evil and pagan Rome.
13
Therefore, do strive from now on to gradually abolish all that is false in your institute without using any force, and little by little the institute, together with the people adhering to it, will be bettered in the full sense of the truth. However, if you and your companions were to attempt now to put the whole institute upside down, your many fellow members there would declare you insane and try in every possible way to prevent you from harming the institute, which they consider to be organized quite expediently. In this case you would never have the chance to remove, gently and unnoticed, all that is false from the institute and replace it with the fullest truth."