The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 105 -
What it means 'causing violence to the Kingdom of Heaven'
I said: "Friend, for the one who seriously wants it, every effort and work is a soft yoke and a light burden, but when you will avoid the trouble, then with that you will not attain the desired goal as it should be. And the right trouble and effort are now the violence, which every person should cause to the Kingdom of God in order to acquire it completely.
2
Look, you yourselves are really causing great violence to the Kingdom of God, but because you want to acquire it in full earnest, you also do not avoid any trouble and any sacrifice, and My yoke seems to be for you very soft and My burden that is laid upon you very light and little. Just think that out of love for Me you take those many young people with you to Rome in order to take care of them there in My name. But besides them, you also take that poor family from Emmaus, the family of Helias and several converted temple servants with their wives and children with you and you will also take care of them. And look, that is a very great violence, which you as gentiles are causing to the true Kingdom of God in order to draw it completely to yourselves, and you will cause an even greater violence to it, because your full faith in Me, your love for Me and your firm and totally and every good will, will make you to do even more than what you have done so far. And still, all that will only be a soft yoke and a light burden for you because you gladly want it yourselves in full earnest.
3
When you, friend, will look at this now in the light of the right reason and evaluate it, you surely will see that the soft yoke, the light burden and the violence that must be caused to the Kingdom of God comes down to the same thing.
4
But if you now look for instance at our temple servants and besides that at a lot of worldly people, then do ask yourself if that which you can do now so very easily to gain the Kingdom of God would not mean for them such an enormous violent effort of their will with which you could as it were move the mountains of the Earth. And if they - who can do it - will not cause the Kingdom of God such violence as you have done already with great joy, they will also really not obtain it.
5
And as it is now in these days and in this time, so it will be in the coming times with the worldly people, because on this Earth there will never be a complete lack of world-loving people, and for them My yoke will not seem to be soft and My burden will not seem to be light. And if maybe in their last days in the long night of their earthly life they still intend to acquire the Kingdom of God, then also they will have to knock on the doors in order to receive only from the lowest Heavens only a little bit of bread for the satiation of the life of their soul.
6
Therefore, he who will do much for My sake and perform many actual sacrifices, will also receive much from the Kingdom of God. But he who, just like the nightly traveler at the end of his trip through this world, will seriously start to knock at My door and to ask, will indeed also not be rejected, but he will only receive little because he only troubled himself little to acquire the Kingdom of God and he only started to search for it when he was forced by the extreme need.
7
That such a person has caused the Kingdom of God only very little violence is easy to understand and therefore it is also easy to understand that such a person cannot expect a great part of the Kingdom of God. For with the same measure with which someone metes here, it will regarding him also be meted in the Kingdom of God.
8
Thus, he who has caused a great violence to the Kingdom of God in order to win it, will also already here on Earth receive great might and power, but he who has caused the Kingdom of God only little violence in order to win it, will also receive very little might and power and will in the beyond eternally never reach those who in My eyes already here on this Earth have become great and mighty. Did you, My friend, understand this well now?"