The Spiritual
Teachings of The Urantia Book: Synopsis, Part 8
Responsibility
Contents of this Synopsis
In teaching children to pray "Our Father," an enormous responsibility is placed upon earthly fathers so to live and order their homes so that the word "father" has worthy connotations while becoming enshrined in the minds and hearts of growing children.
The fruits of the spirit, your sincere and loving service, are the mighty social lever to uplift the races of darkness. And this Spirit of Truth will become your powerful multiplying fulcrum.
Remember that you are commissioned to preach this gospel of the kingdom-the supreme desire to do the Father's will coupled with the supreme joy of the faith realization of sonship with God.
Humanitarian labors are social by-products that must not replace the proclamation of the gospel.
Labor to persuade the minds of others but never dare to compel them.
Be gentle in your dealings with erring mortals, patient in intercourse with the ignorant, and forbearing under provocation-but be valiant in defense of righteousness, mighty in the promulgation of truth, and aggressive in preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
The revelation I have made is a living revelation, and in accordance with the laws of spiritual growth and adaptive development, it shall bear appropriate fruits in each generation.
Do not forget that you are commissioned to go forth preaching only the good news. You are not to attack the old ways; you are skillfully to put the leaven of new truth in the midst of the old beliefs. Let the Spirit of Truth do his own work.
Remember always to love one another. Do not strive with others, even with unbelievers. Show mercy, even to those who despitefully abuse you.
He who would be great among you, let him become server of all.
The remembrance supper is the emblem of the bestowal ministry of the Spirit of Truth. It is also a symbol of our emergence from the bondage of ceremonialism and selfishness into the spiritual joy of brotherhood and fellowship. [Note: the Spirit of Truth is the spirit of Jesus which was bestowed upon all believers after his resurrection.]
Upon all such occasions (a remembrance supper), the Master is really present and his spirit fraternizes with our indwelling Father-Spirit.
Jesus to his disciples: And so I give you a new commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all mankind know that you are my disciples if you thus love one another as I have loved you.
If you abide in me and my words live in you, you will be able to commune freely with me, and then can my living Spirit so infuse you that you may ask whatsoever my Spirit wills and the Father will grant us our petition.
Prayer is a way of taking God's way, an experience of learning how to recognize and execute the Father's will.
You are in this world but your lives are not to be world-like. I have chosen you 'out of the world' to represent the spirit of another world even to this.
"With the Coming of the Spirit of Truth . . ."
With the coming of the Spirit of Truth all the children of light will be drawn toward one another. And my Father and I will be able to live in the souls of each one of you, and also in the hearts of all other men who love us and make that love real in their experiences by loving one another even as I am now loving you.
This new teacher is the spirit of living and growing truth, expanding, unfolding, and adaptive truth.
Divine truth is a spirit discerned and living reality. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind.
Truth is a spiritual reality value experienced only by spirit-endowed beings who function on supermaterial levels of universe consciousness, and who, after the realization of truth, permit its spirit of activation to live and reign within their souls.
Love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living re-adaptive interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of Spirit of Truth. Love must grasp the ever changing concept of the highest cosmic good of the individual who is loved. And such love goes on to strike this same attitude to all individuals who could possibly be influenced by one spirit-led mortal's love for his fellows.
The golden rule and the teaching of non-resistance cannot be dogmatized; they can only be comprehended by living them in accordance with the interpretation of the Spirit of Truth who directs the loving contact of one human being with another.
When the new teacher comes, then shall this Spirit of Truth lead each of you abroad to labor for the kingdom.
God is no respector of persons; in the sight of God, all are equal, all believers are the children of God.
When the new teacher comes let him teach you the poise of compassion and that sympathetic tolerance which is born of sublime confidence in me and of perfect submission to the Father's will.
Dedicate your life to demonstrating the combined human affection and divine dignity of the God-knowing disciple.
As far as is in your power live long on Earth that your life of many years may be fruitful in souls won for the heavenly kingdom.
To him who is God-knowing there is no such thing as common labor or secular toil. All earthly labor is sacred and is a service-even to God the Father.
Learn that the expression of even a good thought must be modulated in accordance with the intellectual status and spiritual development of the hearer.
Be not dismayed that you fail to grasp the full meaning of the gospel. You are but finite and fallible mortal men-and that which I have taught you is infinite, divine, and eternal.
Participation in the religion of Jesus is the sure and certain technique whereby spiritually isolated and cosmically lonely individuals can escape personality isolation and all its consequences of fear and helplessness.
Fear, Anger, Evil, Forgiveness
In half-civilized man there still lurks an evil brutality that seeks to vent itself upon those who are superior in wisdom and spiritual attainment.
Having revealed God to man, Jesus was now (at his crucifixion) engaged in making an unprecedented revelation of man to God. He was now revealing to the worlds the final triumph over all fears of creature personality isolation.
As taunts, insults, and blows fell upon Jesus, he was not vanquished, merely uncontending in the material sense.
Jesus was not even angry when, at his trial, ignorant mortals derisively struck him in the face after blindfolding him.
As they nailed Jesus on the cross, his only words were, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He could not have so mercifully and lovingly interceded for his executioners if such thoughts of affectionate devotion had not been the mainspring of all his life of unselfish service.
The gospel of the good news that we mortals may, by faith, become spirit-conscious that we are children of God, is not in any way dependent on the death of Jesus. True, indeed, this gospel of the kingdom has been illuminated by the master's death, but even more so, by his life.
Moses taught the dignity and justice of a creator God; but Jesus portrayed the love and mercy of a heavenly Father.
It is wholly correct to refer to Jesus as our savior. He forever made the way of salvation (survival) more clear and more certain.
The concept of atonement and sacrificial salvation is rooted and grounded in selfishness. The believer's chief concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation but rather the unselfish urge to love and serve our fellow beings even as Jesus loved and served mortal man.
The great thing about the death of Jesus, as it is related to the enrichment of human experience and the enlargement of the way of salvation, is not the fact of his death but rather the superb manner and the matchless spirit in which he met that death.
The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation.
When thinking men and women look upon Jesus as he offered up his life on the cross, they will hardly again permit themselves to complain at even the severest hardships of life, much less at petty harassments and fictitious grievances.
Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win us over to goodness and righteous survival.
Jesus loved us so much that his love awakens the response of love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious-and eternally creative.
Jesus portrayed a higher quality of righteousness than justice-mere technical right and wrong. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and actually destroys them.
Greater love can no one have than this-that they would be willing to lay down their life for their friends. And Jesus had such love that he was willing to lay down his life even for his enemies.
Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you, and on the truth that you and all others are the children of God. And your mission shall consist in the life that you will live-the actual living experience of loving and serving others, even your enemies, just as I have loved and served you.
Give up intolerance and learn to love others as I have loved you. Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world. It is the love of God that impels the individual to seek salvation. Love is the ancestor of all goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful.
Do not neglect to minister to the weak, the poor, and the young.
If you trust me more, you will be less impatient with your brethren. If you will trust me, it will help you to be kind to the brotherhood of believers. Pray for tranquility of spirit and try to cultivate patience.
Make sure you are devoted to the welfare of your brethren on Earth with a tireless affection. Admix friendship with your counsel and add love to your philosophy. Be faithful. Be less critical. Expect less of some.
A service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship
Serving the Readership since 1955