The Gospel in Brief

Chapter Nine TEMPTATIONS

The illusions of temporal life conceal from people the true life of the present.

AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS

Man is born with the knowledge that true life can be found in fulfilling the father’s will. Children live by this; his will is evident in their actions. In order to understand Jesus’s teaching, you must understand how children live and become like them. Children would never break the five commandments if their elders did not lead them into temptation. Temptation is the evil that people do for imagined benefit in temporal life. People ruin children by leading them into the temptation of breaking the commandments, like the man who ties a grinding stone around another’s neck and throws him in a river. If there were no temptations, the world would be happy. Temptations ruin people and therefore you must sacrifice everything in order to keep from falling into temptation.

The temptation against the first commandment occurs when people consider themselves pure before others, while considering others indebted to them. To not fall into this temptation, people should remember that they all carry an endless debt to the father and that they can only wash themselves of this debt by forgiving their brothers. Therefore people should forgive their offenders, not being daunted if the offender continues to offend again and again. No matter how many times a man may be offended, he should forgive, not noting the evil, because the kingdom of heaven can only be possible with forgiveness. If we do not forgive, then we are the same as the debtor who begs mercy of his master, is forgiven, but then continues to pressure those who owe him money. So what are we doing if we ourselves do not forgive? We do what we are afraid will be done to us. The father’s will is goodness and evil is what distances us from the father. So why would we not try to extinguish this evil as quickly as possible if it can destroy us and deprive us of life? Evil binds us up in the ruins of the flesh, so we must diffuse it to obtain life.

The temptation against the second commandment occurs when we assume that woman has been created for the lusts of the flesh and that if we abandon one wife and take another we will have greater pleasure. To not fall into this temptation, you must remember that the father’s will is not for man to find comfort in woman’s beauty, but for everyone who has selected a wife to unite with her as one body. The father’s will is that every husband have a wife and every wife have a husband. But when one replaces his wife, he deprives the wife of her husband and challenges another husband to leave his and take the abandoned one. You can choose not to have a wife, but having more than one wife is not possible since when you take a second wife, you break the father’s will.

The temptation against the third commandment occurs when people establish systems of power for gain in temporal life and demand oaths from people. To not fall into this temptation people should remember that they are not obligated before anyone except God, and that this obligation is for their lives. People should look at the demands of power as if it were violence and, as in the commandment about not opposing evil, give away what the powers demand: their belongings and labor. But no one can bind you to actions in the future with promises and oaths. The oaths that they squeeze out of people turn them bad. A man who acknowledges life in the will of the father cannot promise his future actions because for every person there is nothing more holy than life.

The temptation against the fourth commandment occurs when people, giving into malice and vengeance, think that they can improve other people by doing so. If a man offends another, then people think that he must be punished and think that it is right to judge others. To not fall into this temptation, you must remember that people have not been called to judge, but to save one another, and that people cannot judge the wrongdoing of others, because they themselves are full of wrongdoing. The only way they can teach others is with their example of purity, forgiveness and love.

The temptation against the fifth commandment occurs when people presume a distinction between their own people and people of other nations and believe that it is necessary to protect themselves from other nations and to harm them. To not fall into this temptation, you must understand that all commandments can be combined into one: fulfill the will of the father, who has given life and goodness to all people, and do good to all people without making any distinctions. Other people may still make these distinctions between nations, and may go to war, but the man who fulfills the father’s will does good to every person, no matter what nation he is from.

To avoid falling into any of these human errors, a man should think not of the flesh, but of the spirit. If a man has understood that life is only for the purpose of being within the will of the father at every present moment, then neither deprivation, nor suffering, nor death can frighten him.

Eternal life should not be understood as something that will be similar to our current life, happening in some place and at some point in time. True life in the will of the father has neither place nor time. It is impossible to imagine true life in terms of time or people. Those who have penetrated into true life live for the father. Even if for us they have died, for God, they are living. And therefore one commandment contains all else within it: love the source of life with all your strength, and by extension love every person who carries that source within them.

This source of life is the Christ for whom you are waiting. Anything that hides this source of life from people should be considered temptation. There is the temptation of the scribes and the old believers—do not give into it; there are the temptations of kingly power—do not give into them; and there is also the most vicious temptation—that of the teachers of faith who call themselves orthodox. Beware this temptation more than the others because they, these self-proclaimed teachers, having thought up false methods of worship, deceive you away from the true God. Instead of serving the father of life with their actions, they have vaunted the word and teach words, but the father doesn’t need words, he needs actions. They are occupied solely with the exterior, with the appearance of faith. Their temptation is the root of all temptations because they have reviled what is holy in the world and under the guise of goodness, they promote evil. You know that no one can make himself a teacher of others. For all people there is but one teacher—the lord of life, knowledge.

Once, some children were brought to Jesus, but his students began to push the children away.

Jesus saw that the students were pushing the children away, and he grew angry and said, “You are driving these children away pointlessly. Children are the best people because they all live in the will of the father. They are the ones whose place in the kingdom of heaven is secure. You should not drive them away, you should learn from them, because in order to live in the father’s will, you must live as children live. Children always keep the five commandments that I have given you: children do not curse, they do not hold grudges against people, children do not whore, children do not take oaths for any reason, children do not oppose evil, they do not judge anyone, children do not see any distinctions between their own people and foreign ones, and therefore they are better than adults and are in the kingdom of heaven.

“If you do not renounce all of these temptations of the flesh and do not become like little children then you will not find yourself in the kingdom of heaven. Only he who understands that children are better than us, since they do not break the father’s will, only he can understand my teaching. And whoever understands my teaching is simply comprehending the father’s will.

“We cannot despise children because they are better than us and their souls are clean before the father. They are always with him. And not one child perishes due to the father’s will. All children who perish do so only because of other people, because people deceive them away from the truth. Therefore we need to protect them and not tempt them away from their father and from true life. And the man who deceives them away from purity is committing evil. To deceive a child away from goodness, to tempt him with anger, lust, oaths, judgment, war is as bad as hanging a grinding stone around such a child’s neck and throwing him into the water. It is difficult for him to swim to shore, and he will likely drown. It is just as difficult for a child to escape the temptation into which an adult has led him.

“People are unhappy in this world only because of temptations. Temptations are everywhere throughout the world. They always have been and always will be, and man will perish from temptations. So give all that you have, sacrifice everything, just do not fall into temptation. A fox may fall into a trap, but it will wriggle its paw out and run away, its paw will return to full health and the fox will remain living. You must do the same. Give away all that you have, just do not become entangled in temptation.”

Beware the temptation against the first commandment: do not bear evil toward other people because they have offended you and you want to take vengeance on them.

“If a man offends you, remember that he is a son of the same father and that he is your brother. If he offended you, go and appeal to his conscience, face to face. If he listens to you, then you are both better off: you will have a new brother. If he doesn’t listen, then call two or three others to be with you so that they can help convince him. And if he repents, forgive him. But if he continues to offend you, even seven times, but then seven times says, ‘Forgive me,’ then forgive him. If he does not listen, then tell a group of people who believe in my teaching. If that group of people also doesn’t listen, then forgive him and have nothing more to do with him.

“Because the kingdom of God can be compared to the following: A king had begun to work out his accounts with his taxpayers. And they brought him one taxpayer who owed him one million rubles. And he had nothing to pay with. And the king would have had to confiscate his entire estate, his wife, his children, and the man himself. But the taxpayer began to beg for mercy from the king. And the king took mercy on him and forgave him his debt.

“And now that very taxpayer went home and came across another man. This man owed him fifty kopecks. The king’s taxpayer caught the man and began to choke him, saying, ‘Give me what you owe me.’

“And the man fell to his feet and said, ‘Have patience with me, I will pay you in full.’

“But the taxpayer had no mercy and locked the man up, making him sit in prison until he could pay in full. Some other men saw this and went to the king, reporting what the taxpayer had done.

“Then the king called the taxpayer to him and said to him, ‘I forgave you your entire tax, you evil dog, because you begged mercy of me. And so you ought to have mercy on your debtor because I took mercy on you.’

“And the king was overcome with anger and sent the taxpayer to be tortured until he could pay off his tax.

“The father will do the same with you if you do not forgive, with your whole heart, those who are guilty before you. You know, after all, that if a dispute is drawn out with a fellow man, that it is better to make peace with him instead of going to court. You know this and you do it because you know that if you go to court it will cost you more. The same is true with every type of malice. If you know that malice and evildoing distances you from the father, then unravel yourself from this malice as quickly as possible and make peace. After all, you know yourself that however you get yourself entangled on earth, you will be entangled the same way before the father. And however you disentangle yourself on earth, you will be similarly disentangled before the father.

“You must understand that if two or three are united on earth by my teaching, then they are already in possession of everything that they could desire from their father. Because where two or three are united in the name of the spirit that resides in man, then the spirit of man lives within them.”

Beware the temptation against the second commandment, concerning how people exchange wives.

Once, Jesus was approached by the orthodox teachers who, testing him, said: “May a man abandon his wife?”

He said to them, “From the very beginning man has been created male and female, that is the will of the father. And for that reason a man will abandon his father and mother and cling to a wife. The husband and wife merge into one body. And so, for a man, his wife is the same as his own flesh. Therefore man should not break the natural law of God and divide what has been united.

“According to your law of Moses, it is said that a man can leave his wife and take another, but this is not true. By the father’s will it is not so. I say to you that whoever abandons his wife is forcing her into debauchery as well as whoever may then associate with her. And, by leaving his wife, he spreads debauchery in the world.”

And Jesus’s students said to him, “It is too difficult to stay with one woman forever. If that is what is required then it would be better to not be married at all.”

He said to them, “You can choose not to be married, but you must understand what that means. If someone wants to live without taking a wife, then he must be completely clean and not have contact with women. Such people that have no contact with women certainly exist, but whoever loves women should unite with one wife, not abandon her and not look at any other women.”

Beware the temptation against the third commandment, concerning how people force others to fulfill obligations and take oaths.

Once the tax collectors came to Peter and asked him, “What then, does your teacher not pay taxes?”

Peter said, “No, he does not pay,” and he went and told Jesus that they had stopped him, and told him that everyone is required to pay taxes.

Then Jesus said to him, “The king doesn’t collect taxes from his own sons, after all, and other than the king no one requires payments. Right? It is just the same with us. If we are the sons of God, then we are not obligated to anyone other than God and we are free from all other possible obligations. But if you are required to pay taxes, then pay them, and not because you are obligated to, but because you must not oppose evil. If not, then opposing evil will produce even greater evil.”

Another time, the orthodox got together with the royal officials and they went to Jesus in order to catch him in his words.

They said to him, “You teach everything correctly. Tell us, are we obligated to pay a tax to the king or not?”

Jesus understood that they wanted to condemn him for not acknowledging obligation to the king.

He said to them, “Show me what you use to pay your tax to the king.”

They gave him a coin.

He looked at the coin and said, “What is this here? Whose face is this and whose inscription?”

They said, “The king’s.”

And he said, “Well then give the king what is his, and do not give your soul, which is God’s, to anyone except to God. Money, possessions, your labor, offer it to whoever demands it of you, but do not give your soul to anyone but God. Your orthodox teachers travel everywhere and force people to take oaths and promise that they will keep the law. But in doing this they are only perverting people and making them worse than whatever they may have been before. It is impossible to covenant your body for your soul. God is within your soul, so it is impossible to promise God to other people.”

Beware the temptation against the fourth commandment, concerning how people judge and punish other people and call others to participate in these judgments and punishments.

Once, Jesus’s students came to a village and asked to be given a place to sleep, but they were not admitted.

Then the students went to Jesus and complained about this, saying, “We wish they would be struck dead by lightning for this.”

Jesus said, “You still have no understanding of who you are in spirit. I am not teaching you how to destroy people, but how to save them.”

Once, a man came to Jesus and said, “Command my brother to give me the inheritance.”

Jesus said to him, “No one has made me a judge for you, and I will not judge anyone. And you cannot judge anyone.”

Once, the orthodox brought a woman to Jesus and said:

“Look at this woman who was caught in prostitution. According to the law we are to beat her with rocks. What do you say?”

Jesus did not answer them, but waited for them to change their thinking.

But they persisted and asked him how he would sentence the woman.

Then he said, “Let whoever among you has never made any mistakes be the first to heave a stone at her.”

And he said nothing more.

Then the orthodox looked at themselves, reproached by their consciences, and the ones in front attempted to hide behind the ones in back, and they all left quickly. And Jesus was left alone with the woman.

He looked around and saw that nobody was left. “What,” he said to the woman, “is there no one here to condemn you?”

She said, “No one.”

He said, “And I cannot condemn you either. Go then, and from now on, do not sin.”

Beware the temptation against the fifth commandment, concerning how people consider themselves obligated only to do good to their fellow countrymen and consider other nations to be enemies.

One legalist wanted to tempt Jesus and said, “What should I do in order to receive true life?”

Jesus said, “You know. Love your father God and love your brother under your father God as well, no matter whose countryman he may be.”

And the legalist said, “It would be good if there were no distinction between nations, but how am I supposed to love the enemies of my nation?”

And Jesus said, “There once was a Jew. He was struck by tragedy: attacked, robbed and tossed to the side of the road. A Jewish priest happened by, took a look at the beaten man and continued past. A Jewish Levite happened by, took a look at the beaten man and continued past. A man from a foreign, enemy nation happened by next, a Samaritan. This Samaritan saw the Jew and did not think about the feelings of Samaritans toward Jews, and simply felt sorry for the beaten Jew. He washed him, bandaged his wounds, and took him to an inn on his donkey. He paid money to the innkeeper for him and promised to stop by and pay any additional fees for him.

“You should conduct yourself the same way with foreign nations, with those who consider you nothing, those who may attack you; then you will receive true life.”

Jesus said, “The world loves its own, but hates God’s. Therefore, the people of the world—priests, dogmatists, and rulers—will torment those who do the will of the father. And I will soon go to Jerusalem and they will torment and kill me, but my spirit cannot be killed, it will go on living.”

Having heard that Jesus would be tortured and killed in Jerusalem, Peter became distressed, took Jesus by the hand and said to him, “If that’s the case, then it would be better not to go to Jerusalem.”

Then Jesus said to Peter, “Do not say this. What you are saying, that is a temptation. If, for my sake, you are scared of torture and death, then that means that you are not thinking of the divine, of the spirit. You are thinking of what concerns man.”

And, having called together a group of people with his students, Jesus said, “Whoever wants to live according to my teaching, let him renounce mortal life and be ready for all possible suffering in the flesh, because whoever fears for his mortal life will destroy his true life, and whoever neglects his mortal life will preserve his true life.”

And they did not understand this. Then the old believers arrived and he explained to everyone what he meant by true life and awakening from death. The old believers said that after the death of the flesh there would be no more life.

They said, “How can everyone be resurrected from the dead? If everyone were resurrected, then those who were resurrected would have no room to live together. Now, we had seven brothers. The first took a wife and then died. The wife then married the second brother, and that one died, she married the third, and he died, and so on until the seventh. So, how can these seven brothers live together with one wife if they are all going to be resurrected?”

Jesus said to them, “You are either trying to confuse things intentionally, or you do not understand what the awakening of life consists of. People in this life take wives and husbands. Those who serve eternal life and awake from death do not take husbands or wives, because they can no longer die. They are united with the father.

“In your scriptures it is written that God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham and Jacob.’ And God said this when Abraham and Jacob had already died, in the people’s understanding. It would seem then that those who die, in people’s understanding, are living in God’s understanding. If God exists and he does not die, then those who are with God are always living. Awakening from death is life within the will of the father. For the father there is no time and therefore when you fulfill the father’s will, and align your will with him, you can also leave time and death behind.”

Having heard this, the orthodox were helpless to come up with anything that could force him into silence, so they united with the old believers and they all began to probe Jesus together.

And one of the orthodox said, “Teacher! In your opinion, what is the most important commandment in all of the law?”

The orthodox believed that Jesus would make a legal error in his answer.

But Jesus said, “The most important commandment is to love with all your soul the Lord under whose power we all live. The other arises from it: Love your neighbor, since that same Lord is within him. Everything that is written in all of your books can be found in this.”

And Jesus said further, “In your opinion, what is the Christ? What is he, somebody’s son?”

They said, “In our opinion, Christ is the son of David.”

Then he said to them, “How could David call Christ his Lord? Christ is not David’s son or anyone’s son, but Christ is that very Lord, the master of us all, whom we recognize within ourselves, as our life. Christ is the knowledge within us.”

And Jesus said, “Keep watch, beware of how the orthodox teachers leaven their words. Beware also the leavening of the old believers and the leavening of the government. But more than anything else, beware the leavening of the self-proclaimed orthodox, because within them is the greatest deception.”

And when the people understood what he was speaking of, he said, “Be very wary of the scribes—the self-proclaimed orthodox. Beware them because they have stepped into the position of the prophet who announces the will of God to the people. They have, of their own will, taken on themselves the authority to preach the will of God to the people. They preach words, but do nothing. And it happens that they only say, ‘Do this and do that,’ but there is nothing to do because they do not do anything good, all they do is talk. They tell you what you are not allowed to do. And they themselves do nothing. They only attempt to retain for themselves the authority of the teacher, and in order to do so they attempt to make a display: they get dressed up and make themselves impressive.

“So? You should know that no one ought to call themselves a teacher or pastor. The self-proclaimed orthodox call themselves teachers and by doing so they block you from entering the kingdom of heaven and do not enter it themselves, either. These orthodox teachers believe that one can be brought to God through external ordinances and oaths. And, like blind men, they do not see that the external is meaningless, that all things are within the soul of man. They perform the easiest, most superficial actions, but they neglect to perform what is necessary and most difficult: love, charity and truth.

“They would prefer to satisfy the law on the outside and to lead others to the law on the outside. And due to this they are like decorated coffins, on the exterior they seem clean, but inside there is something atrocious. On the outside they respect the saints and the martyrs. But in reality, they are the very ones who torture and murder the saints. They were before and are now the enemies of goodness. All of the evil in the world comes from them because they hide goodness and promote evil in the place of good. You must fear the self-proclaimed pastors more than anything else.

“You know yourselves that every error can be corrected. But if people are deceived in what constitutes goodness, then that error cannot be corrected. And that is what the self-proclaimed pastors do.”

And Jesus said, “I wanted to unite all the people here in Jerusalem into a single knowledge of true goodness, but the local people are only capable of punishing teachers of goodness. And therefore they remain the same non-believers as they were before and they will not come to know the true God, so long as they do not lovingly accept his knowledge.”

And Jesus went away from the temple.

Then his students said to him, “Well, what about this temple of God with all of its decorations that people have brought into it as offerings to God?”

And Jesus said, “Truly I tell you that this temple, with all of its decorations, will be destroyed and nothing will remain of it. There is only one temple of God and that is the heart of people when they love one another.”

And they asked him, “When will there be such a temple?”

And Jesus said to them, “It will not be soon. For a long time still even my teaching will be used to deceive people and there will be wars and disturbances because of it. And there will be great lawlessness and there will be little love. But when the true teaching is spread to all people, there will be an end of evil and temptation.”