The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in two additional towns
- Chapter 146 -
The love for people of another belief.
Look, when I came into this world almost 33 years ago in a sheep's stable in Bethlehem, born from a very pure and pious virgin - with the name of Maria who was the only daughter of Joachim and the old Anna who at the time of the pious Simeon were always busy in the temple - it were gentiles who were the first that saw from afar that in Me something extraordinary had come into this world. They brought all kinds of offerings to Me - gold, incense and myrrh - and the most powerful commanders of Rome in Judea and over all the Roman lands in Asia and also Africa showed Me great love and gave Me every favor, especially during that sad occasion when the old Herod heard that in Me a very powerful King of the Jews was born and he wanted to let kill all male children up to 12 years . My earthly mother and My stepfather Joseph and his 5 sons, whom he received from a former marriage, had to flee to Egypt with Me, and the Roman commander Cornelius and his brother Cyrenius showed Me much love during that flight and took care of a good accommodation in a strange country.
2
And look, this is what the gentiles, who are so much hated by the Jews, did for Me, while the Jews, that means the mighty ones, wanted to kill Me from fear that, at the time that I would grow up, they could lose their throne from Me which they leased from Rome.
3
Now, if this is the case, then it is also completely correct that I, as well as every true Jew, should show the same love to the gentiles as they have shown Me already from My childhood. And the last 2 1/2 years I always experienced far and wide during My trips as a Teacher, more faith and love from the gentiles than from the Jews who take Me for a false prophet, deceiver, agitator of the people and a magician who has an alliance with Satan, and they also assert to the people that this is what I am. And the more the simple Jews believe in Me, the more they want to kill Me.
4
But I say to you that also for this reason the light of the eternal truth of the Jews will be taken away and given to the gentiles. The Jews will be scattered over the whole world and will never more possess an own country but will have to bear all slander and persecution as hated slaves among the kings of the gentile nations as a permanent testimony of their unbelief and their total lovelessness. They will always wait for the promised Messiah, but in vain, for that Messiah am I and furthermore no one anymore throughout eternity.
5
Therefore, you also should completely change your old attitude regarding the gentiles, then they will become your friends and will easily accept your true belief, because most of them do not believe anymore in their gods anyway but adhere to the teachings of their worldly sages and are by that very clever philosophers and speakers, and through them you will learn a lot of what you hardly will expect to find with them.
6
People who are clever and discerning in worldly things, will also quickly and easily be the same in what concerns the spirit and its deep wisdom and philosophy of life. It only depends on how you treat them.
7
The one who immediately will chop into them with the sword and the clubs of the old hate will certainly do bad business with them, but the one who will meet them will all meekness and love, will soon be carried on their hands and be shown all love in return.
8
Look, this was your fault up to now which you should lay off in the future if you want to become a perfect Jew and perfected man just like Me.
9
Does God not let His sun shine over the gentiles as well as over the Jews, which you certainly must have noticed every day? But if God, the Lord over all things in the world and in the Heavens, makes no difference, then also a true Jew should try to become completely equal to God, his eternal Father.
10
However, you should not help them in the construction of for instance an idol temple, for this would not be true neighborly love and would be worthless to Me, but freeing the gentiles from all their old errors and giving them the old light of the truth is what is really very worthy to Me.
11
It is the same when a poor gentile comes at your door to ask for alms but you do not give to him because he is a gentile, then to Me you have done nothing worthy for the eternal life. However, if you also take care of a poor, hungry and thirsty gentile and give him what he needs, then to Me you have done a very pleasing work of neighborly love, and I will repay you already here a hundredfold and later in the beyond eternallyfold , because true neighborly love in the heart of man - whether he is a Jew or gentile - is the only true spiritual element of life by which the whole sensorial world and all Heavens are kept in their order of existence. If man possesses and practices true neighborly love, he will live by that in the right order of God and will establish in himself the eternal life of his soul.
12
So have from now on true neighborly love, for gentiles as well as for Jews, then by the power of My Spirit you will be awakened to eternal life and you will penetrate into the depths of My divinity. By that you will also truly love your God above all in Me. And this is all what I want from people in order to gain eternal life. The one who possesses that love is to Me without sin and does not have to pray those long, empty and to Me completely worthless prayers of the Jews, will not have to fast nor do penance in sack and ashes. Did you well understand that?"