The Gospels – The Gospel According to Matthew
The spiritual comes first
Matthew 6:19-24 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
As mentioned earlier, every spiritual volition takes on a form that corresponds to the nature of the volition. If good, the form is beautiful but if evil, it is ugly. This is an adjuration to turn away for materialism, from the materialist orientation which makes us forget the spiritual and the real purpose of our existence on earth. Obviously, if we ignore the spiritual, that is if we do not do spiritual works, then there will be nothing spiritual whatsoever awaiting us when we pass on into the Beyond. We arrive there as paupers. We may have the greatest wealth on earth but it is no longer of any use to us once we pass on.
Good spiritual works lead to spiritual wealth and this is reality. The more spiritual works we do the richer we are spiritually. The same law applies as they do on earth. If we, however, ignore the spiritual and pay all attention solely to the accumulation of earthly wealth, then it is obvious that we must arrive in the Beyond with absolutely nothing to show for our earthly existence. This is not to say that we must ignore the earthly, no, but in tending to the earthly, we must not forget what is far more important, which is the spiritual and that the earthly only lasts for a short while. The existence of human beings moves mainly in the spiritual and ethereal realms.
The service to God encompasses everything and we will also not be allowed to want for anything in the earthly sense if we obey His Laws. So we gain both ways. Not only will we be rich in the earthly sense, we will also be rich in the spiritual sense.
The spirit is the lamp of the body. The core of man is spirit. That is what he is. The physical body is nothing but a covering that he needs on this earth in order for him to live here. When his time here is done, he drops it and continues with his journeys in the Beyond. If the human being is corrupted, then the ethereal covering around his spirit becomes darkened and then all that proceeds from him will be evil. All the thoughts, intuitive perceptions and so on will be evil. How great then is that darkness! If the spirit (eye) is good, then it is brighter and lighter and shines forth. People around even notice this. If the human being is evil, his ethereal garment is dark and heavy.
Those who are slaves to the intellect and are such materialists are in reality, as mentioned earlier Lucifer’s servants and must obey Lucifer’s promptings and will be used as tools in the warfare that he wages against the Will of God. Such people without knowing it have become enemies of God. They have enthroned another master in their hearts through their decision to become out and out materialists. They will never be able to serve God without first dethroning Lucifer, changing their materialistic outlook and embracing the spirit. It is simply one or the other. It is either or. Nothing in between.
Matthew 6:25-26 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
Here Jesus advises us to do first things first. The spiritual comes first. We should make the effort to seek to understand the Laws of God. Seek first of all to adhere to these Laws. That is the most important Commandment of “Thou shall have no other gods but Me.” Our goals should primarily be spiritual, then other things which are material will be given to us by God Himself without too much toil on our part. He gave the example of the lilies that are very beautiful and cared for through the grace of God and these plants do not even gather or sow. Why do we spend so much time on matters that do not really count. The Almighty is the custodian of all blessings in this Creation. As long as we adhere to His Laws, He will let us have what we need for our lives on earth. What each individual needs will come on his path automatically.
Many of us in our attempts to become materially comfortable not only retard our spiritual development but spending too much time on such matters, but we also harm others in the process. If we only have the spiritual as our goal, then it would be impossible for these aberrations to occur. Then there can be no question of being burdened with guilt. We will attain to the height that we are meant to be spiritually and we will also be cared for materially without having to harm anyone. We have everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose.
It is a shame that the whole of mankind to a man has ignored this Commandment. The result of this we see before us. We have held back any true blossoming. It is the material first for mankind of today. We have no time for spiritual things. We have done exactly the opposite of what Jesus commanded and yet many of us claim to be Christians. As in all things, it is that intellect which stands in the way, always asking the question “Are you sure?”
Just like we transposed the order within ourselves by overdeveloping the intellectual brain at the expense of the spiritual one, we have managed to contravene every single commandment of Jesus. We did and still do exactly the opposite of what He desires. Is there a pattern in this? Of course there is. There is an inherent distortion in the human being brought about by the condition mentioned above. As a result he must simply follow the order as dictated by his inner condition. If his inner condition is of a particular order, then he must simply follow that order. He is simply acting according to how he has become through his own fault. Man has become wholly intellectual. He is intellectual man, not spiritual man. Is it then surprising that we find a pattern in his behaviour?
He takes a purely spiritual Commandment from God and adapts this Commandment to his nature. He transposes it. He does exactly the opposite. He is simply obeying the distortion that lies within him. We have therefore reached the core of the problem. Why has mankind always done the opposite of what he is asked to do for his own good? Why has he always failed to listen to the voice of the spirit? Until he changes himself, that is, until he recognises the distortion that he carries within, it will be impossible for him to find his way back to Paradise, his origin. He must be destroyed as he cannot be used for any up building in his present distorted state. He must be cast out so as to prevent him from disturbing those newly born who will now carry the mantle for the further advancement of mankind.