“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.”
Chapter Six FALSE LIFE
And therefore, in order to receive true life, Man must renounce the false mortal life on earth and live by the spirit.
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
For the life of the spirit there can be no difference between family and strangers. Jesus says that his mother and brothers mean nothing to him as family, but that only those who do the will of the common father are close to him. The ones who hold to the understanding of the father are blessed.
Jesus says that he does not have a specific place for himself, since he lives by the spirit. Living by the father’s will is possible in all places and at all times. The death of the flesh cannot be frightening for a person who has given themselves up to the father’s will because the life of the spirit is not dependent on the death of the flesh. Jesus says that whoever believes in the life of the spirit cannot fear anything.
In response to the man who says he will fulfill Jesus’s teachings afterwards, but that first he must bury his father, Jesus answers, “Only the dead should worry about burying the dead; those who live always live by fulfilling the will of the father.” Concerns about family and domestic duties cannot disturb the life of the spirit. Whoever worries about what will become of his mortal life as a result of fulfilling the father’s will does the same as the plowman who plows looking backward instead of forward. Concerns about the joys of mortal life, which seem so important to people, are like a dream. The only actions in life that are real are proclaiming the father’s will, attending to it and fulfilling it.
To Martha’s reproach about how she alone is concerned with dinner while her sister Mary does not help her, but sits listening to the teaching, Jesus says, “Worry about the worrisome if you must, but leave those who have no need for the flesh to do the one thing that is truly needed in life.”
Jesus says that whoever wants to receive true life should first renounce his own personal desires. Such a person should not only refrain from arranging his life according to his own desires so as not to damage the true life of fulfilling the father’s will but he must also be ready at any moment to endure all kinds of deprivations and suffering. There are no benefits to be obtained from mortal life if the obtaining of it damages the life of the spirit.
More than anything else, the life of the spirit is damaged by the acquiring of riches. People forget that no matter how many riches and belongings they acquire, they could still die at any moment and having things becomes superfluous. Death is an unavoidable condition of life, it hangs over each of us—sickness, murder at the hands of others, and accidents may cut a life short at any second. If a person is living, then he should look at every hour of his life as a reprieve. We are capable of knowing and predicting all that happens on earth and in heaven, but we forget that death awaits us at any second. If we keep from forgetting that, then we will keep from devoting ourselves to mortal life.