The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
At the Sea of Galilee (John 6)
- Chapter 143 -
Official function and honor. Everything is by grace; only good will has merit. On the awareness of one's own worthlessness.
Said I: "Regarding the worldly, it doesn't concerns Me; since this is a matter of the human world mind. They can become worldly what in an honest manner comes their way, it does not mean anything before Me, only what they will effectuate according to My teaching and thereby to the will of God.
2
The external standing of a person does not have the slightest value before Me, but only the standing of his heart illuminated by the word of God, which is full of love through the love to God and through the love for the neighbour. But if someone holds a high worldly office, he is thereby also placed in a position to do even more good; and if he does this, also his office will have merit before Me, - however, the high office on its own, nothing whatsoever.
3
Emperor and beggar are completely equal before Me and have as this what they are, absolutely no standing before Me, - but only this has any value before Me, how they are what they are in My name; since the worldly standing does not count anything before Me. Let this be said to you all well, high and dearly!
4
Wretched is he who regards his fellow-man as less because he himself holds a high worldly office! The office should have a well respected standing and the official only insofar as he represents the position; however, the official should certainly not regard himself important, since he is only a servant of the office and not the office itself!
5
I only told you this, so that nobody regards himself important because of some worldly office; since who does this, is not in My love anymore and his office does not serve him to his life anymore but to his downfall."
6
Upon which My old disciples said: "Lord, if so, it is not good to occupy an office! We also have received an office from You and in time can't help it if we are honoured and regarded as something better by the people because of this office."
7
Said I: "That the people should not honour you, I nowhere have given a command for it; however, you should not fancy yourself because of it, as if you were more than those who honour you, for then you already have received your reward, and your work would count before Me nothing and would be standing there unmerited.
8
If you as My workers therefore want to be regarded before Me as merited and pleasingly looked at, then say in your heart, if you have done everything most conscientiously in My name: 'Lord, we were lazy and useless servants before You!' If you feel and recognize this in you alive, that you only had been voluntary servants of My solely acting spirit, I will look at your work as if did it Myself and still give you the just reward for it."
9
Said some disciples: "Lord, if so, we are then completely obsolete to You; since You have the power anyway to do everything without our help! If we can't do anything out of ourselves and always have to think that everything what we even do under sacrifice of our lives in Your name, only You Yourself is doing and we therefore are nothing than Your blind tools, we impossibly cannot claim any reward from You! What merit can have a dead weaving machine before the weaver, who only uses it to comfortably produce his canvas?"
10
Said I: "The weaving machine does not have a free will; but you have it and can freely do what you want. If you voluntary subject yourself to My will and act accordingly, then you do not act yourself but My will in you, which is good only! How do you then have any merit for acting accordingly? See, then you have no merit, - but only for this that you have subjected your evil world will to My only good will and thereby have become one with Me through the help of your faith.
11
Verily, I say to you: Without Me you can do nothing to merit everlasting life! If you recognize this in your heart, only then you are My true disciples - and even more: thereby you also have become My true brothers in the spirit of God!"
12
Again some disciples said: "This is all quite nicely and very wisely spoken; but we admit it openly that all this is somewhat hard and does not sound very convincing. Because with the actual freedom of the own will it does not look very promising! And if you have done something good, it does not concern the voluntary doer; for the deed he cannot expect any reward, but only for that, that he voluntarily has given himself to the recognized will as a borrowed tool. This is peculiar! Therefore man is and stays nonetheless nothing else than a tool of the divine almightiness and is in and for himself forever a pure nothing. Truly, with such teaching even we, who have heard and seen so much from You, could become weak in our faith!"
13
Here the giant said: "Dear friends, this opinion, I, as the youngest disciple of this Master and God-man, do not share with you! What about this child, in which quite often already from very early on, an evil will expresses itself? Must it not obey the wise will of its parents and finally only uses it to do what the parents want? And if it has in time found its way in the will of its parents, itself gets wise, knows what is right and good and rejects out of itself the evil, false and injustice. It thereby only then attains a true self- consciousness and a true, reasonable independence. Would the child ever get there, if it had not made the wise will of its parents its own?!
14
And as such also we humans can only then attain the true self-consciousness and true life independence, if we through our voluntary obedience make the revealed divine will completely our own; for in the divine will must apparently also lie the highest freedom, because God Himself is the most wise and thus freest being. And if we ever want to put a claim to true life freedom, we only can achieve this thereby, that we fully think, feel and will as one with Him and then also fully act accordingly. - Am I right or not?"
15
Said the disciples: "Yes, yes, in this regard you are quite right and we only can praise you for that! However, it therefore is still also not untrue, that finally every person has to be content with the face he has received; since despite all his discontentment no other will be given to him. In short, all honour of the great wisdom, power and goodness of our Lord and Master, - however, nevertheless there never will be a free God going forth from man and out of God never a limited person! And thereby we have said a lot and everything; because that man with his anyway very limited powers must do everything and finally has to admit by himself - and this even with his inner fully alive conviction -, that he has done nothing and was only a punishable lazy and useless servant, is such a strange request that something similar never has been heard on this earth!
16
A wise father will only praise his children if they have zealously worked his fields; but here not only no mentioning is made about it, but it is even demanded, if one has done everything with the biggest zeal, that one should despise yourself more than a cadaver. Ah, this cannot be! How can a person ever attain the zeal for a good deed, if he must despise himself because of the good deed?! Yes, man should despise and abhor himself for the sake of sin which he committed carelessly, - but not for the sake of a good deed! He only must have a right joy about it and even quietly give an elevating praise to himself in his soul and be calm in his conscience, also then, if the whole world would despise him for the deed! However, to despise himself for it and be discontent with himself in the highest degree, if one has done everything with every possible zeal, whatever one has recognized as good and right according to the divine will, is truly expected too much from an anyway weak man!
17
Lord, we ask You for a more complete explanation, otherwise also we have to go like the ones who have left earlier! You came to us and we have followed Your call and have all the time believed everything; but this we do not believe You as we understand and recognize it, - and this therefore because it is not easy to understand and recognize it differently!"