The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 48 -
Mathael's speech on law and love.
Mathael says, "Oh, one more thing, and this thing is of considerable significance!
2
If it costs you an effort and you are not doing it particularly out of love, then leave it be and do instead what you want to do out of love; for what a person does not do totally out of love has little value for his life, for love is truth of the actual element of life, it is the original life itself.
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Accordingly, whatever seizes love is seized by life and passes over into life; but whatever remains untouched by love and whatever a person does simply because he either fears terrible consequences or because his little piece of arrogance wants it in order to appear to others to be a wise man, does not turn into life, instead only into death, because it was seized only by the element of death instead of by the element of life!
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I tell you, every law, no matter how wise, does not bear life, but death, if a person does not observe it out of love; and the wisest advice resembles a seed which instead of falling in the good earth, fell on rocks, where it withers and finally cannot possibly bring forth fruit.
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I tell you also, because I see that it is so: everything in a person is dead except for their love! So let your love reign in fullness over your whole being and feel love in every fiber of your being, and so you will have the victory over death in you, and what was dead in you has been transformed into indestructible life through your love; for love which feels itself and recognizes itself from out of such a feeling is life itself, and whatever passes over to it also turns into life!
6
Following my advice very exactly would be of little use to you if you only observed it for the sake of its truth and because you feared some sort of bad consequence if you didn't observe it; but such observance would not be of any use to your souls. Ah, it is something quite different when love and truth seize one another and work together; then love constantly creates a newer and more perfect life from the light and in the light of truth up to full divinity!
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The love or the spirit of God in a person is an image of God right from the beginning; but to achieve fully active, living similarity with God it must first lift itself up on the path which I have now shown you. Do you understand this?"
8
Suetal, now looking very cheerful, says, "By God the Almighty! You are truly one of the greatest prophets; for so truly, so clearly and so wisely has no prophet yet spoken to his people! You have truly more perfect life in your little finger than we have all together in our whole body or actually in all our souls together. Yes, yes, it is so, brothers! Truly a divine breath speaks through Mathael and we can never thank God enough that He has brought us together, one might say, so wonderfully! Oh, but if your wisdom is so decidedly greater than ours, how great must be that of the Savior of Nazareth who is yet unknown to us?!"
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Mathael says, "What glistens so wonderfully brightly in a drop of dew hanging on a blade of grass?
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You see, it is the image of the sun which shimmers so wonderfully brightly on the clear drop! But the image of the sun does not only shimmer, but it acts too! In the centre of the drop the light of the image of the sun condenses, the drop in its centre turns into a great warmth of life, in this warmth of life it turns into the element of life in the end and enlivens the little plant which is fighting with death; but the image in the drop is by no means the sun itself, but only a representation of the same, equipped with a little part of the same power and effect which is natural to the real, great sun itself!
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And see, there is also such a difference between me and the Savior of Nazareth! He is the sun of life itself, and in me just as in a drop of dew the small image of the eternally true, great sun rules wonderfully brightly, out of which countless myriads of such drops as us suck their holy food of life. Do you understand that?"
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Suetal says, "Oh God, that is a great and holy language! Friend, you are already more than a drop, you are a whole sea! Oh, we will never get so far; it is too movingly great, holy and eminent! But in such circumstances and in very divine circumstances we as very crude sinners do not dare to remain here; for this place begins to become holier and holier!"
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The other eleven also begin to speak very humbly and also want to move away from there; but Julius does not allow this to happen.
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But Suetal says, "Lord, once when Moses went to the burning thorn bush on the mountain to find out what was happening, a clear voice spoke from out of the flames: Moses, remove your shoes from your feet; for the place on which you are standing is holy ground! Here according to the tangibly clear statement is what Moses encountered on the mountain; therefore this place is holy and we sinners are not worthy to set foot on it!"