The New Law

Matthew 5: 21-26 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Here it was just not a question of paying attention to the great sins but we are advised also to pay attention to the small things. The little things that we do that inconvenience our neighbours but to which we have never really paid attention. We must learn tolerance and get into the habit of forgiving those who offend us. These are all words that point to the absolute importance of righteousness, a constant working on ourselves to become better human beings.

These are Commandments that we have been told to follow. If we fail to pay attention to the little things we run the risk of perdition. The little things can accumulate and weigh our spirits down, especially when there are so many of them. Only the observance of all these guarantees entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no mention of His carrying our sins on His shoulders, giving us a letter of safe conduct without our working on ourselves. No such imbalance and imperfections exist in the Laws that proceed from the Godhead.

Matthew 5: 27-30 “You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall not commit adultery’. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”

Every single thought or feeling that we generate takes on a form that corresponds to the nature of the thought. Lust, being a feeling is no exception. It takes on a form and moves towards the object, in this case the woman. This thought is capable of tainting the spiritual surroundings of the woman. Nothing physical may have been done but a desire has already been sent in the direction of the woman. Such thought forms, depending on how powerful they are, are capable of attracting similar forms. These thoughts are impure and in the final analysis soil the ethereal garment of the person concerned and can even confuse the intuitive perceptions of those who have become the object of their attentions.

In this Creation, the spiritual always precedes the physical in their manifestations. It is therefore the case that a sexual intercourse with a person first of all takes place through the generated thoughts and feelings even before the physical act itself. Any physical action, no matter how trivial is always preceded by either a spiritual volition or a thought process and has already become a deed spiritually or ethereally. The physical manifestations are nothing but a consequence of the preceding thought process.

If we intend to do evil, we would have initially thought about it or felt it within before we carry out the action. We may indeed decide not to proceed with the action but the generated thought is there, has been brought into being and continues to be active. The action has already become deed in the ethereal, even though the effects are not yet manifest on earth. They may never manifest but more often than not they do. These thought forms seek to attach themselves to other people who generate similar thoughts and they can attach to the brains of these people and goad them to act in ways desired by these thought forms. We all at one time or the other have felt waves of thoughts approaching our brains whether lust or something else and have often wondered where these thoughts come from.

So if for example we lust after someone and desire to have a physical relation with them, then we have indeed already had that relation with that person ethereally. If we make further efforts we may indeed work towards bringing it about physically. We have thought about it, we have imagined it and the deed has been done. Whether it manifests physically or not is immaterial. The principle that every single earthly action is always first preceded by a creative thought process is applicable in all cases even in the so called impulse actions. Something stronger is even at play here; whereby the force of some intuitive volition seizes the individual and entirely bypasses the conscious intellectual brain. Some forms of impulse actions can also seize the brain and then consequently recruit muscle groups for some action or the other. No matter in which category, the action has been preceded by some form of thought action or spiritual volition.

The other sentences of Jesus about severing members of the body if they cause us to sin emphasizes the temporal nature of our earthly existence and forces us to begin to acknowledge what is important in our earthly life for spiritual ascent and what only serves earthly purposes. Jesus here is not asking us to literally remove our physical eyes and cut off our hands. What He was saying was that nothing, no matter what it is should be deemed so important that it stands in the way of our spiritual progress. No earthly matter, family, friends, loved ones, wealth, no matter what it is should ever be placed on the same pedestal as the pure worship of God and the desire to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

In this Jesus was saying that we must obey the First Commandment utterly, which in any case He declared to be the greatest of the Commandments “I am the Lord thy God, thou shall have no other gods but Me.” If loved ones or whatever else, no matter how important they are to us stand in the way of the true worship of God and the desire to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, then these things must be done away with. No matter how important we deem these things to be, whether family, spouses or friends, the gods of love of money and so on; if they prevent us from obeying the First Commandment to the fullest extent then we must cut them off. Earthly relationships are only temporary, very rarely do they last into the Beyond, but here it is a question of the eternal existence of the spirit.

Therefore, Jesus with these few words tried to bring us to the realisation of what is truly important for a human being while he is here on this earth. There are things on earth that only serve to facilitate life on earth. We can never take these things with us into the Beyond. There are other things, however, that can be taken with us into the Beyond. It is the latter that we must pay more attention to. We only have to think a little to realise what these things are and be able to easily differentiate.

He emphasised that it was better to cut off these things now even if they cause us enormous pain than to have to face the pain of eternal torment in hell. The pain that we will feel on earth when we do away with our propensities will only be felt for a short period of time compared the much greater pain caused by running the risk of spiritual death which is eternal. These words are not to be taken lightly.

Matthew 5:31-32 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce ‘. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.”

It is obvious here that unless there are genuine reasons, it would be difficult to justify a separation from a spouse. Separation, however, can be inevitable if for some reason or the other genuine love no longer exists between the two. In such a case it would even be immoral to continue such a relationship. Such relationships more often than not are kept going only for the sake of appearances.

Here Jesus was referring to situations where one or the other person uses one excuse or the other to do away with other person without adequate spiritual grounds. It was to prevent a situation which existed during His time and which still exists today in some cultures where husbands would simply declare that they no longer wanted to be married to their wives and that was it.

On a whim the husband could declare that he wanted a divorce and there was really nothing that the woman could do about it. There are obviously no adequate spiritual grounds for the separation and such a man forces the woman out alone on her own and leaves her with no choice but to look for another partner in often very unhealthy circumstances. This is the situation where he forces the woman to become an adulteress. This applies to both sexes however, because unless there are real spiritual grounds for a demand for a divorce or separation either by a man or woman then it is difficult to justify it.

Matthew 5:33-37 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

It is inconceivable that in spite of these clear words, states which purport to be Christian still require that we swear oaths, whether it be in a court of law or in allegiance to some head of state or to the state itself. The conclusion can be drawn that as human beings we can choose to ignore the Words of Jesus when these do not suit us and selectively apply the ones that we find agreeable.

No human being should be required to swear an oath whether that of an allegiance or in any court of law. His words stating that he will perform his duties to the best of his abilities or that he will speak the truth in a court of law should be sufficient. If it is then found out that he had uttered a lie then he could be made responsible for this. We should hallow God’s Name in such a way that prevents us from ever dragging It down into earthly insignificant affairs.

The reference to “Let your ‘Yea’ be sufficient” is an adjuration to keep our speech simple. We should not indulge in loquaciousness. He who works with his intuition will never be able to make many words. Loquaciousness is an indication that the individual is a slave of the intellect and that that individual has a distorted intellect which has choked up the spirit and prevents it from truly functioning as it should.

Lucifer uses the intellect as his tool and as such all those who submit unconditionally to the intellect in the making of all their decisions are only using what to Lucifer is the keenest weapon. Since everything that goes beyond the simple in speech comes from the intellect and the intellect is Lucifer’s tool, it stands to reason that such speech merely proceeds in reality from him.

We should therefore guide against loquaciousness as the words never proceeds from our spirits. They come from the intellect and all that is earthly. They shape forms which do not uplift. They weigh us down. Besides loquaciousness does not allow enough reflection which is an activity of the intuition. We thereby never really receive anything from our spirits. We are never quiet enough within ourselves to listen to the voice of the spirit. We rule out spiritual activity for ourselves.

Lucifer has chained us down through inducing us to overdevelop the intellect at the expense of the spirit. In this way, he has ruled out spiritual activity for this mankind. The way to God therefore has been cut off. The way to God requires that we use our spirits since we can never understand God through intellectual activity.

God lies beyond the capacity of the intellect and as such attempting to use the intellect to discover God is bound to fail for this simple reason. The intellect is an earthly instrument suitable for all earthly activity. Whatever goes beyond the earthly requires that we use a similar, homogenous instrument to investigate it. It is exactly in this that mankind has consistently failed. Attempting to investigate the spiritual world with intellectual studies will not get us very far. Therefore we have been earthbound through the intellect. It is in this that we must change first if we want to understand God.

Matthew 5:38-42 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

This is a reaffirmation of the Commandment in the Old Testament which states that “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” The Laws of God are responsible for meting out reward and punishment for any action. By not taking revenge we may even help in changing the other person for the better. Not taking revenge is not a sign of weakness; it is a demonstration of the confidence in the Laws of God.

The desire for revenge forms a thread which binds the two persons to each other. It is impossible to proceed spiritually until this thread has been severed. We retard our spiritual development and we actually go to where the other person had been drawn to in the Beyond. If the other person is an evil person and has been drawn to an evil place in the Beyond as a result of his nature, our desire for revenge will drag us with him to his nether region, which otherwise we would have avoided. And we could run the risk of perdition as a result of this.

This Commandment from Jesus is therefore given out of love as a protection against such happenings. In addition, in taking revenge we perform an evil deed, which we will have to account for in any case. The Laws of God do not see the action as an act of revenge or justice. It is simply another evil act which must be fully redeemed.

The “eye for an eye” in the Old Testament does not refer to human to human interactions at all as some might believe. It applies only to the activity of one of the Laws of God called the Law of Reciprocal Action. This Law returns to every individual the results and the fruits of all his or her activities. Therefore this law returns an “eye for an eye”, “like for like”. After all we can not sow rice and receive rye. It returns the same fruit as the seed. It does not direct that we should take revenge on our fellow human beings. It simply states that it will return to same kind of fruit as the seed to each individual. The same kind of retribution as the deed so much so that if we think or act in a particular evil way, we receive back as retribution the same kind of evil as consequences, hence hate for hate and envy for envy and so on. But as always we human beings have distorted the concept and have as a result burdened ourselves with enormous guilt by always trying to seek revenge thinking that we are doing the Will of God as a result.

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,… You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

More is demanded from those who want to follow the Laws of God. Perfection of spirit is demanded of them, perfection of being. They must have absolutely no fault of character and no weaknesses. These are all clear from Jesus’ words. The prerequisite to entrance into the Kingdom of God is this perfection of being and the effort required to achieve this. It is just this effort that the religious representatives of today fight against.

It is clear from Jesus’ words that we have to make constant and considerable efforts to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. These efforts are geared towards perfecting our spirits. All His words point in this direction and it is difficult to imagine where the current teaching of a letter of safe conduct whereby God without further ado forgives everything and Jesus carries all the sins of mankind on His shoulders.

He clearly states that not only must we be prepared to forgive all who trespass against us, we must go further in such a way to see if we could influence the other person to change for the better. We must go the extra mile in caring for the well-being of the soul of our neighbours even if in our judgment they are bad. He went on to say that of what use is it to do the minimum, what reward have we if we greet those who are friendly to us; even sinners and thieves do that. We are meant to be different. We are meant to be examples for humanity. This requires the effort to perfect our spirits. Here we are not talking about intellectual perfection because there is nothing of the sort; we are talking about not having any spiritual faults or weaknesses.