The Gospel in Brief

Chapter Five TRUE LIFE

The satisfaction of personal will leads to death, the satisfaction of the father’s will gives true life.

THY WILL BE DONE

Wisdom consists of recognizing one’s own life as a son of the spirit father. People give themselves goals in mortal life and as they work to achieve these goals, they torment themselves and others. When they accept the teaching about the life of the spirit and submit and humble themselves in the flesh, people find complete satisfaction in the life of the spirit, the life that has been allotted them.

Jesus asks a woman of another faith for a drink. She denies him on the pretext of their differing faith. Jesus says to her, “If you understood that a living man is asking you for a drink, one in whom the spirit of the father resides, then you would not deny the request, but would seek to do me good, and thereby unite in spirit with the father.”

Jesus says to his students, “A person’s true food is to fulfill the will of the spirit father. Fulfilling his will is always possible. Our entire life is the gathering of the fruits of life, which the father has planted within us. Fruits are the good acts that we do to other people. One must never cease to live and do good to people.”

In Jerusalem there is a bathhouse at which a sick man lays, doing nothing, waiting for a miracle healing. Jesus approaches the weak man, saying, “Do not await a miracle healing, but go and live, with as much strength as you have in yourself and do not mistake the meaning of life.” The weak man obeys Jesus, stands and walks off. The orthodox reproach Jesus because he had raised a feeble man on the Sabbath. Jesus says to them, “I did nothing new. I simply did what our mutual spirit father does. He lives and animates people. And that is every person’s calling. Every person is free and can either choose to live, doing the will of the father and doing good to others, or not to live, doing their own will and not doing good to others.

“People’s true lives are like this: A master gives his slaves a portion of his priceless estate and commands each to labor over the part that he gave them. Some work, others do not, hiding what was given to them. When the master makes his account, he gives to those that worked an even bigger measure of what they had, and from those that did not work he takes away all that they had been given. This is like the spirit of life within a person—he who works for the spirit of life receives endless life, he who does not work loses the one that has been given to him. The only true life is the life that is common to all, and not the life of a single person. All people should work for the life of others.”

Jesus’s disciples do not know how to feed the crowd that has followed him into the wilderness. Jesus asks that all available bread be given to him. He takes the bread, gives it to his apostles, they give it to the others and the others begin to do the same. All the people eat at someone else’s hands and they are all satisfied together, yet there is food remaining. Jesus says, “It is unnecessary for everyone to obtain food for themselves. Give others something to eat—that is what the spirit within man dictates. Man’s real food is the spirit of the father. You should serve all life, since life is not a matter of doing one’s own will, but the will of the father of life. The father, the source of all life, is a spirit. Life is just the fulfillment of the father’s will and so, in order to fulfill the spirit’s will, one must give up the flesh. The flesh becomes food for the life of the spirit. Only by yielding our flesh do we allow the spirit to live.”

Jesus selects certain of his students and sends them to preach the life of the spirit. As he sends them off, he says, “To preach the life of the spirit you must renounce all lusts of the flesh and must not possess anything of your own. Be prepared for persecutions, deprivations and sufferings. You will be hated by those who love mortal life. They will torment and murder you, but do not be afraid. If you do the father’s will, then you will have the life of the spirit, which no one can take from you.”

When the students return, they announce that they have defeated evil teachings everywhere they have gone. The orthodox contend that if his teaching defeated evil, then it must be evil itself, since people must endure suffering when they follow it. To this, Jesus says, “Evil cannot defeat evil. If evil is victorious, then it only conquers with goodness. Goodness is the will of the spirit father, who is common to all people. Everyone knows that goodness exists for themselves, and if they perform their actions for other people and do the will of the spirit father, then they do good. And therefore, fulfilling the spirit father’s will is good, though it may be yoked with suffering and death for those who fulfill it.”

And Jesus rejoiced deeply over the power of the spirit and said, “I recognize the father’s spirit as the source of all things in heaven and on earth because what has been hidden from the clever and the wise ones is now opening to the uneducated simply because they see themselves as sons of the father.

“All people worry about the well-being of the flesh, they have loaded up a kind of cart that they could never pull away; they have placed a yoke on themselves which was not designed to fit them. Understand my teaching and follow it, and you will come to know peace and joy in life. I will give you a different yoke and a different cart: spiritual life. Harness yourselves to it and you will learn calmness and blessedness from me. Be peaceful and meek in heart and you will find blessedness in your life. Because my teaching is a yoke designed to fit you; fulfilling my teaching is an easy cart to pull and a yoke designed to fit you.”

Once, Jesus went into the city of the Samaritan Sychar near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And the well of Jacob was there. Jesus was tired from the road and he sat down at the well.

And a woman of Samaria came for water and Jesus said to her, “Give me something to drink.”

And Jesus’s students went into the city to buy some food.

And the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me for a drink? After all, Jews do not associate with Samaritans.”

And Jesus said to her, “If you understood what God has given people and who it is that asks you for a drink, I would give you the water of life.”

And the woman said, “You don’t even have a bucket and the well is very deep. How will you give me the water of life? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave this well as a gift and drank from it himself, as did his children and livestock.”

And Jesus answered, “Whoever drinks his fill of this water will again become thirsty, but whoever drinks his fill of the water that I will give will never again know thirst. But the water that I give will produce in him a fountain of water flowing into eternal life.”

And the woman said, “Give me that kind of water, so that it will no longer be necessary to drink or come to the well for water.”

And Jesus said, “Go call your husband and come back here.”

And the woman said, “I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers here pray to God on this mountain, but you say that the place of God, where one ought to pray, is in Jerusalem.”

And Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, people do not pray to the father either here on this mountain or in Jerusalem. The time has come for people to pray authentically, to the father of life in both spirit and in action. These are the kind of worshippers that the father needs. The father is a spirit and he must be prayed to in spirit and in action.”

And the woman said, “I know that the messiah is coming, and when he does, he will tell us everything.”

And Jesus said, “I am telling you everything.”

And the woman went and called the people.

At that moment, the students returned with bread and asked Jesus whether he would like to eat.

And he said, “I have food that you know nothing about.”

They thought that someone had brought him something to eat.

But he said, “My food is to do the will of the one who gave me life and to accomplish that which he has entrusted to me. Do not say, ‘There is still time,’ as the plowman says, waiting for the harvest. He who does the will of the father will always be full and will know neither hunger nor thirst. Fulfilling the will of God always satisfies a person, it carries its own reward. One cannot say, ‘I will do the father’s will later.’ As long as there is life, it will always be both possible and necessary to fulfill the father’s will. Our life is a field that God planted; and our task is to gather his fruit. And if we gather fruit then we receive a reward: life outside of time. It is true that we do not give ourselves life, but that someone else gives it. And if we labor to gather this life, then we, like the reapers, will receive a reward. I am teaching you to gather this life that the father has given to you.”

Once, Jesus came to Jerusalem. And at that time there was a bathhouse in Jerusalem. Concerning this bathhouse, people said that an angel would descend into it and that the water in the pool would subsequently begin to froth, and that whoever would be the first to plunge into the pool after the water froths up would be healed of whatever sickness he had. And an awning had been made near the bathhouse. And under this awning the sick lay and waited for the water to froth up in the bathhouse and then to plunge in.

And a man was there, debilitated in his ailment for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked him what he was doing. The man related that he had been ill for thirty-eight years and was still waiting to be the first into the bath after the water froths up, so that he could be healed, but that for thirty-eight years he had not been able to get in first, that all the others got into the water before him to bathe.

And Jesus saw that he was old and said, “Do you want to recover?”

And the man said, “I want to, but I don’t have anyone to carry me into the water on time. Somebody always gets in before me.”

And Jesus said to him, “Wake up, take your bed and go.”

And the weak man took his bed and walked off. And it was on the Sabbath.

And the orthodox said, “You cannot carry your bed off today, it is the Sabbath.”

He said, “The one who raised me commanded me to take the bed with me.”

The invalid went off and told the orthodox that Jesus had healed him. And the orthodox grew angry and persecuted Jesus because he had taken such action on the Sabbath.

And Jesus said, “Whatever the father always does, I do as well. I tell the truth to you: the son can do nothing in and of himself. He can only do what he has understood from the father. What the father does is what he does. The father loves the son and because of this he taught the son all that he must do. The father gives life to the dead, and likewise, the son gives life to those he wants to give it to; since the father’s business is life, the son’s business should likewise be life. The father did not condemn people to death, but gave people power according to their will, either to die or to live. And they will live if they respect the son as they do the father.

“I tell you truly: whoever has understood the meaning of my teaching and has come to believe in the common father of all people already has life and is delivered from death. Those who understood the meaning of human life have already left death behind and will live forever. Because just as the father lives independently in and of himself, just so, he planted life in the son himself. And he gave him freedom. Because of this, he is the son of man.

“From now on, all mortals are divided into two groups. Only those that do good find life; and those that do evil will be destroyed. And this is not my judgment, but just what I have come to understand from the father. But my judgment is correct because I judge these things not in order to do what I want, but so that everyone does what the father of all wants. If I convinced everyone that my teaching is true, then that would not prove my teaching. But there is something that proves my teaching—the actions that I teach. They show that I do not teach from myself, but from the father of all people. And my father, the one that taught me, he confirms within the souls of all people the truth of my commandments. But you do not want to understand and know his voice. And you do not hold on to the meaning of this voice. You do not believe that you have a spirit within you, a spirit that has come down from heaven.

“Give some thought to the meaning of your scriptures. You will find the same substance in them as in my teaching. They are commandments about how to live for more than just yourself, how to do good to all people. I teach you in the name of the common father of all people, and you do not accept my teaching, but if someone teaches you in their own name, you believe that. You should not believe in what people say to one another, you should only believe that the son is within every person, and that the son is the same as the father.”

And so that people would not think that the heavenly kingdom was a visible phenomenon, so that they would understand that the kingdom of God is simply the fulfilling of the father’s will and that the fulfilling of the father’s will depends on the strength of every person, and so that all people would understand that life is not given to each person for their individual use, but to fulfill the father’s will and that only the fulfilling of the father’s will can save from death and give life, Jesus told a parable.

He said, “There was a rich man who needed to leave his home. Before his departure, he called his servants and distributed ten talents, one for each, and he said to them, ‘While I am absent, each of you must work with what I have given you.’

“But it happened that when he left, a few residents of this city said, ‘We don’t want to serve him any longer.’

“And so, when the rich man returned from his absence, he called these servants to whom he had given money and commanded them each to report what they had done with his money.

“The first came and said, ‘Look, master, I made ten out of the one that you gave me.’

“And the master said to him, ‘Good, you good servant, you were loyal in a small matter, I will place you in charge of large matters, you will be one with me in all my riches.’

“Another servant came and said, ‘Look, master, I made five from the one talent.’

“And the master said to him, ‘You have done well, good servant, be one with me in all my possessions.’

“One more came and said, ‘Here is the talent that you gave me. I hid it in a handkerchief and buried it. I did so because I was afraid of you. You are a severe man: you withdraw from where you made no deposit and gather where you did not sow.’

“And the master said to him, ‘You foolish servant! I will judge you by your own words. You say that you hid your talent in the earth and did not work with it because you fear me. If you knew that I am severe and that I withdraw from where I have not deposited, then why did you not do as I commanded you to do? If you had worked with my talent, my estate would have grown and you would have fulfilled what I had commanded you to do. But now you have not done the thing for which I gave you the talent, and therefore, you cannot possess it.’

“And the master commanded that the talent be taken from the one that did not work with it and he gave it to the one that worked the most.

“And then the servants said to him, ‘Lord, they already have so much.’

“And the master said, ‘Give it to them that worked most, because the one who watches over what he has been given will receive even more, and he who does not watch over it will have even his last bit taken away. Drive out the ones who do not want to be under my power, so that they are no longer here.’”

The master—that is the source of life, the spirit father. His servants are people. Talents are the life of the spirit. Just as the master does not work on his estate himself, but commands the servants to work, each on his own, likewise, the spirit of the father placed the spirit of life in people, gave them a decree to work for the life of other people and then left them alone. Those who sent word that they no longer recognize the authority of the master, these are the ones who do not recognize the spirit of life. The return of the master and the demand for the account is the destruction of mortal life and the deciding of people’s fates: do they have any other life beyond the one that was given them, or not. Some of the servants, those that fulfill the master’s will, work on what was given them and increase the money that they started with, these are the people who, having received life, understand that life is the father’s will and that it should serve the life of others. The stupid and evil servant who hid his talent and did not work on it represents those who only fulfill their own will, not the father’s will, and do not serve the lives of others. The servants that fulfill the master’s will and work for the prosperity of the master’s estate become full participants in the master’s estate and the servants that do not fulfill his will and do not work for the master are deprived of all that had been previously given. People who fulfill the father’s will and serve life become participants in the life of the father and receive life, despite the destruction of mortal life. Those who do not fulfill his will and do not serve life are deprived of the life they had, and they are destroyed. Those that did not want to recognize the master’s power do not exist for the master; he banishes them. People who do not recognize the life of the spirit within themselves do not exist for the father.

After this, Jesus went into a deserted place and many people followed after him. And he climbed up onto a mountain and sat there with his students.

And he saw that many people were coming and he said, “Where could we get some bread to feed all of these people?”

Philip said, “Two hundred dinari would not buy enough, even if we gave just a little bit to each person. We have only a little bread and fish.”

And another student said, “They have bread, I saw a boy with five loaves of bread and two fish.”

And Jesus said, “Tell them all to lie down on the grass.” And Jesus took the bread that he had and gave it to his students and commanded them to give it to the others, and thus, everyone began to give what they had to one another, and everyone was filled and much bread was left over.

On the next day, the people came to Jesus again and he said to them, “Now you come to me not because you have seen miracles, but because you ate bread and were filled.”

And he said to them, “Do not work for perishable food, but for eternal food, which only the spirit of the son of man can give, sealed by God.”

And the Jews said, “What do we need to do in order to perform the acts of God?”

And Jesus said, “The acts of God are based on believing in the life he has given you.”

They said, “Give us proof so that we can believe in you and in what you are doing. Our fathers ate manna in the desert. God gave them bread from heaven to eat, so it is written.”

Jesus answered them, “The true bread of heaven is the spirit of the son of man, the one that is given by the father, because a person’s nourishment comes from the spirit as it descends from heaven. That is what gives life to the world. My teaching gives true nourishment to people. Whoever follows after me will not go hungry, and whoever believes my teaching will never know thirst.

“But I have already told you that you have seen this and you still do not believe. All the life that was given to the son by the father has a place in my teaching and everyone who believes in it will be a participant in it. Because I have come down from heaven not to do whatever I might want, but to do the will of the father, the one who gave me life. The will of the father who sent me is that anyone who sees the son and believes in him will have eternal life.”

The Jews were confused by this statement, that his teaching had come down from heaven.

They said, “But this is Jesus, the son of Joseph, we know his father and mother. How is it that he says his teaching has come down from heaven?”

And Jesus said to them, “Do not base your judgments on who I am or where I come from. My teaching is true, not because I plan on convincing you that God spoke with me on Sinai, as Moses did; my teaching is true because it is within you also. And in the prophets it is written that all things will be taught by God. Everyone who comes to understand the father and learns to understand his will becomes devoted to my teaching in the process. No one has ever seen God and no one will, but he who comes from God has seen and continues to see the father.

“He who believes me has eternal life. My teaching is life’s nourishment. Your fathers ate manna, food directly from heaven, but they still died. But life’s true nourishment, descending from heaven, is such that whoever is nourished by it will not die. My teaching is life’s nourishment, descending from heaven. Whoever is nourished by it will live forever. And this nourishment that I am teaching is my flesh, which I surrender for the life of all people.”

The Jews did not understand at all what he had said and they began to argue about how one could give up their flesh for the nourishment of other people and why they would do such a thing.

And Jesus said to them, “If you do not give up your flesh for the life of the spirit then there will be no life within you. Whoever does not give up his flesh for the life of the spirit does not have an actual life. The only living part of me is that which surrenders the flesh for the spirit. And therefore, our flesh is the true food for actual life. Only the part of me that consumes my body and gives up mortal life for true life, only this part is me, the true me. It is within me, and I am within it. And just as I live in the flesh by the will of the father, that which lives within me lives by my will.”

And a few of the students, having heard this, said, “These words are severe, and it is hard to understand them.”

And Jesus said to them, “You are so confused that what I am saying to you seems difficult, even though it concerns what man always has been, is and what he always will be. Man is a spirit in the flesh, and only the spirit gives life, the flesh does not give life. Though I used words that seemed sharp to you, I have said nothing more, after all, than that the spirit is life.”

Then Jesus chose seventy people from his close followers and sent them to the places that he wanted to be himself.

He told them, “Many people do not know the blessing of real life. I am sorry for all of them and I want to teach them all. But just as the master is not enough to perform the harvest of his whole field alone, I also cannot do this alone.

“Go to the various cities and announce everywhere the fulfillment of the will of God. Say that the will of the father is in the five commandments: the first—do not be angry, the second—do not be depraved, the third—do not swear oaths, the fourth—do not resist evil and the fifth—do not create divisions between people. And so, moreover, keep these commandments in all things yourselves. I send you to go like lambs among wolves. Be wise like snakes and pure like doves.

“First of all, do not possess anything, do not take anything with you: no bag, no bread, no money, only your garment for your body and shoes. Then, do not create divisions between people, do not choose only the masters at the places you stop. But whatever home you happen to enter first, stay in the same one. When you come into the home, greet the masters. If they take you in, stay; if they do not take you in, go to the next house. You will be hated greatly, attacked and driven out for what you say. And when they drive you out, you must go to another village, and when they drive you out of that one, go to yet another. They will pursue you, like wolves pursue sheep. But do not be timid. Endure until the final hour.

“And they will take you to court and judge you, they will whip you, and they will take you to their leaders and force you to defend yourselves to them. And when they take you to court, do not be timid and do not plan out what to say: the spirit of the father will tell you internally what you ought to say.

“You will not manage to get to all cities before their people come into contact with your teaching and are converted to it. So do not be afraid. What is hidden in people’s souls will come out into the open. What you say to two or three will be spread out among thousands.

“The main thing is to not be afraid of those that can kill your body: they cannot do anything to your souls. So do not be afraid of them. Just be afraid of how your body and soul may be destroyed. If you fall away from fulfilling the will of the father, that is what you should fear. Sparrows are sold five to the kopeck, but they do not die without the father willing it. And no hair will fall from your head without the father’s will. So what have you to be afraid of if you are within the father’s will?

“Not everyone will believe in my teaching. And those that do not believe will hate it because it deprives them of what they love, and there will be contention. My teaching, like fire, will ignite the world. And contention will arise from this in the world. Contention will arise in every home. Family members will come to hate those who accept my teaching, father will contend with son, mother with daughter. And they will kill them. Because for him who understands my teaching, these things will no longer have any meaning: not father, not mother, not wife, not children, not any of his belongings.”

And then the orthodox scholars came from Jerusalem and approached Jesus. Jesus was located in a certain village and a multitude of people had crowded into the house and was standing all around. The orthodox began to speak to the people to prevent them from listening to the teaching of Jesus, they said that Jesus was possessed and that if one were to live by his commandments more evil would exist among the people than currently did. They said that he was casting out evil with evil.

Jesus called to them, saying, “You say that I am casting out evil with evil. But no force can use itself to destroy itself. If it could destroy itself this way, then it simply would not exist. You cast out evil with threats, punishments, and murders yet, despite your efforts, evil is still not destroyed, namely because it cannot attack itself. But I cast out evil differently than you do, to be precise, without using evil. I cast out evil by calling people to fulfill the will of the spirit father, the one who gives life to all. The five commandments express the will of the spirit, the one who brings goodness and life.

“And therefore the commandments destroy evil. And that is proof to you that they are true. If people were not sons of one spirit, it would be impossible to conquer evil, just as it is impossible to go into a strong man’s house and rob him. In order to rob the home of a strong man, you must first bind the strong man securely.

“People are bound like this by the unity of the spirit of life. For this reason, I tell you that every human mistake and every misrepresentation will not be held against you; but misrepresentation of the holy spirit, which gives life to all, will not be forgiven. If someone says a word against a person, it is nothing; but if a person says something against that which is holy within a person, against the spirit, then it cannot be taken lightly. You can reproach me as you like, but do not call those life commandments that I have revealed to you evil.

“One must be either together with the spirit of life or against it. One must serve the spirit of life and goodness in all people, and not just in oneself alone. Either you consider that life and blessedness is good for the whole world, and as a result you love life and blessedness for all people, or you consider life and blessedness to be evil, and as a result you will not love life and blessedness even in yourself; either you consider a tree to be good and its fruit good or you consider the tree to be bad and its fruit bad. Because a tree is valued by the quality of its fruit.”