n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 5
We are not far from
the kingdom of God
if we have a full
understanding and
practice of what it is to
lay down the life of our
old self, our old will,
for the sake of the new
self or the new will. It is
the most difficult thing
a person can possibly
do. And no one can do
it without the Lord.
something within him or her has had to
die that the good and true may emerge.
And how often does this take place in
life? We honor and respect those who
have suffered temptations. We suffer
through them ourselves. And we see
that this is the only true and noble way
to attain the life of heaven – spiritual
sacrifice, as it were.
Very often we are instructed
and reminded in the Lord’s heavenly
doctrine that the only way to spiritual
life is through spiritual combat against
the hells. Evil aspects of life are twisted
and perverse and in the light of heaven
they must actually die. This is the old
self – the old will. If the birth of the
new self, the new will is to take place,
the old must be sacrificed. As the Lord
says in John 12:24: “I say to you unless
a grain of wheat falls into the ground
and dies, it remains alone, but if dies it
produces much grain.”
The evils and falsities of our natural mind, before we are made new by the
Lord, are like a family to us. They are familiar. We love them. The Lord gives
remarkable teaching about them in the gospel of Luke 14:26, 27:
If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be My disciple.
And whoever does not carry their cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.
Some might say this is a direct contradiction of the fourth commandment
of loving our father and mother, but that is why we have to look at the deeper
meaning. Hereditary tendencies toward evil and falsity are like a negative, or
even a hellish, father and mother. Self-serving, harmful and false ideas – things
that we actually make our own and do – these are our children in the negative
sense in the Word.
That thing that dominates us in a negative way – that which we hold dear
to our lives – is our spouse in the Word. These are things of the old of self that
we must reject in favor of the Lord and the neighbor – the positive family.
These are the things we must come to recognize as our enemy – the negative
family that the Lord talks about leaving. There must be war, a great spiritual
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