© 2001 The Brotherhood of Man Library
Jesus’ religion was a religion of the spirit. He saw God as being holy, just, great, true, beautiful, and good, and these attributes of divinity, he saw as being the will of God for him. (UB 196:0.2) Thus his life was lived in a spiritual mode, meaning in dedication to ideals having spiritual value in contrast to things, events and occasions the value for which is confined to the material, finite world. The quotations that follow are illustrative of Jesus’ way of living.
Jesus came not to minister to temporal needs only; he came to reveal his Father in heaven to his children on earth, while he sought to lead his earth children to join him in a sincere effort so to live as to do the will of the Father in heaven. In this decision Jesus portrayed to an onlooking universe the folly and sin of prostituting divine talents and God-given abilities for personal aggrandizement or for purely selfish gain and glorification. That was the sin of Lucifer and Caligastia (UB 136:6.9)
Selfish satisfaction and sensuous gratification, alone and of themselves, are not able to confer happiness upon evolving human beings. There are higher values in mortal existence—intellectual mastery and spiritual achievement—which far transcend the necessary gratification of man’s purely physical appetites and urges. Man’s natural endowment of talent and ability should be chiefly devoted to the development and ennoblement of his higher powers of mind and spirit. (UB 136:6.10)
Jesus thus revealed to the creatures of his universe the technique of the new and better way, the higher moral values of living and the deeper spiritual satisfactions of evolutionary human existence on the worlds of space. (UB 136:6.11)
Jesus refused to compromise with evil, much less to consort with sin. The Master triumphantly put loyalty to his Father’s will above every other earthly and temporal consideration. (UB 136:8.8)
When asked what we can do to make friends, Jesus said: “Become interested in your fellows; learn how to love them and watch for the opportunity to do something for them which you are sure they want done”—and then he quoted the olden Jewish proverb, “A man who would have friends must show himself friendly.” (UB 130:7.2)
This was his method of instruction: Never once did he attack their errors or even mention the flaws in their teachings. In each case he would select the truth in what they taught and then proceed so to embellish and illuminate this truth in their minds that in a very short time this enhancement of the truth effectively crowded out the associated error. (UB 132:0.4)
Jesus forbade his disciples to become embroiled in political difficulties. He ignored the civic, social, and economic realms. He was concerned exclusively with the principles of man’s inner and personal spiritual life. He was interested only in the individual, not the mass. But he did labor to break down all forms of selfish isolation. He taught pure sympathy and compassion. Compassion was his very nature. (UB 140:8.11)
The family occupied the very center of Jesus’ philosophy of life—here and hereafter. He based his teachings about God on the family, exalting family life as the highest human duty. But he made it plain that family relationships must not interfere with religious obligations. (UB 140:8.14)
Jesus would not take sides in political, social, or economic disputes. He would remain grandly aloof while teaching you to perfect your inner and spiritual life so as to render you more competent to attack your purely human problems. He insisted that it is eternally essential that spiritual values come first. (UB 140:8.17)
The heart of Jesus’ religion consisted in the acquirement of a compassionate character coupled with a personality motivated to do the will of the Father in heaven. Jesus wanted his children on earth to live as though they were already citizens of the completed heavenly kingdom. (UB 140:8.25)
Jesus knew men were different, and he so taught his apostles. He constantly exhorted them to refrain from trying to mold believers according to some set pattern. He sought to allow each soul to develop in its own way, a perfecting and separate individual before God. (UB 140:8.26)
What Jesus aimed at was true humility toward God. He placed great value upon sincerity—a pure heart. Fidelity was a cardinal virtue in his estimate of character, while courage was the very heart of his teachings. “Fear not” was his watchword, and patient endurance his ideal of strength of character. The teachings of Jesus constitute a religion of valor, courage, and heroism. (UB 140:8.20)
Jesus had little to say about the social vices of his day; seldom did he make reference to moral delinquency. He was a teacher of positive virtue. He studiously avoided the negative method of imparting instruction; he refused to advertise evil. His few denunciations were directed against pride, cruelty, oppression, and hypocrisy. (UB 140:8.21)
Jesus always insisted that true goodness must be unconscious, in bestowing charity not allowing the left hand know what the right hand does.
Jesus wished to develop spiritual insight towards eternal realities and to stimulate initiative in the originality of living; he concerned himself with the underlying and permanent spiritual needs of the human race. (UB 140:8.31)
The right to enter God’s kingdom is conditioned by faith, personal belief. The teaching of Jesus is a religion for everybody. His life and teachings were bequeathed the universe as an inspirational and idealistic inheritance suitable for the spiritual guidance and moral instruction of all ages on all worlds. And even today, Jesus’ teaching stands apart from all religions, albeit it is the living hope of every one of them. (UB 140:8.29)
Jesus laid great emphasis upon what his disciples must “be.” They knew only a religion that imposed rules on what they must first “do” to attain righteousness. But Jesus would reiterate that first you must ardently desire to be righteous in order to do the work of the kingdom. Being righteous, by faith, must precede doing righteousness in the daily lives of the mortals of earth. Reversing this order is the sure pathway to hypocrisy. And often did he repeat, “Be you therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
A characteristic of Jesus’ teaching was that the morality of his philosophy originated in the personal relationship of the individual to the indwelling spirit of God—the child-Father relationship. He taught morality, not from the nature of man, but from the relation of man to God. (UB 140:10.8)
Jesus stripped morality of all rules and ceremonies and elevated it to majestic levels of spiritual thinking and truly righteous living. (UB 140:10.5)
In answer to a question about the kingdom of heaven, he said:
The kingdom consists in three essentials:
- Recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God.
- Belief in the truth that we are sons and daughters of God
- Faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God—to be like God. (UB 140:10.9)
Throughout his earthly life, Jesus stressed the importance for each individual to develop a personal relationship with the spirit of the Father-God who indwells their mind, and the placing of total trust and faith in the Father’s guidance and watchcare—regardless of any and all appearances to the contrary.
“Ganid, I have absolute confidence in my heavenly Father’s overcare; I am consecrated to doing the will of my Father in heaven. I do not believe that real harm can befall me; I do not believe that my lifework can really be jeopardized by anything my enemies might wish to visit upon me, and surely we have no violence to fear from our friends. I am absolutely assured that the entire universe is friendly to me—this all-powerful truth I insist on believing with a wholehearted trust in spite of all appearances to the contrary.” (UB 133:1.4)
“Jesus had many visits with a Chinese merchant. In saying good-bye, he admonished him: ‘Worship only God, who is your true spirit ancestor. Remember that the Father’s spirit ever lives within you and always points your soul-direction heavenward. If you follow the unconscious leadings of this immortal spirit, you are certain to continue on in the uplifted way of finding God. And when you do attain the Father in heaven, it will be because by seeking him you have become more and more like him.’” (UB 133:4.9)
People are far more impressed and influenced by what they see in contrast to what they are told. In Jesus’ plan for a new age, he endeavored to make clear that he desired that his committed followers should so live in the world that others, by seeing their lives, would become kingdom conscious, hence be led to inquire of believers concerning the ways of the kingdom. (UB 141:7.3)
However Jesus warned us not to attempt too much, but having led another into the kingdom, to then allow the great and living truths of the kingdom to themselves drive out all serious error. His instructions—Go forth proclaiming God is our Father, we are his sons and daughters, and this good news is our eternal salvation. Only when inquirers accept this family relationship can they really go forward in establishing their own individual and personal relation with the indwelling Father-spirit.
Jesus’ early followers initially believed we must all see things alike in order for harmony to prevail. To which Jesus vigorously responded that never did he teach them that they should all see alike. Rather, he came to proclaim spiritual liberty so that mortals may live individual lives of originality and freedom before God. What I require of you, he said, is spiritual unity. You do not have to see alike, or feel alike, or even to think alike, in order to be spiritually alike. Spiritual unity is derived from the consciousness that each of you is indwelt, and increasingly dominated by the spirit gift of the heavenly Father. Harmony must grow out of the fact that the spirit hopes of each of you are identical in origin, nature, and destiny. (UB 141:5.1)
The communities in which Jesus lived and taught were dominantly from small villages in rural communities in which visitors to the village would draw immediate attention to the fact of their presence. In the environment of a seething metropolis that is the lot for most of us in today’s Western world, it would be perfectly possible to live a personal life in almost total accord with the spiritual life that Jesus lived, yet for that life to go almost totally unnoticed. Never would any other human being ever approach to ask what it is that makes such a life so beautiful.
Until we recognize that times are different from 2000 years ago, it would appear that the Urantia movement is doomed to remain as a tiny minority group having little or no effectiveness in assisting with the spiritual progress of beings on this planet.
Perhaps there is a need for committed Urantians to become more visible. However we also need to be aware of the failure of so many religious groups that, at first, appeared to have all the answers, but then fell apart when it became evident that their leaders had feet of clay.
Possibly the best model available to us of a group of dedicated people, united in worship and service, coming reasonably close to Jesus’ ideal for mortal living, and also surviving the crucial test of time, is the Salvation Army. Is it time for Urantians to become visible and united in some such service organization? However, before we can do so, we had best learn to tolerate differences within the movement by recognizing that the “spirit hope of each of us is identical in origin, nature, and destiny.”
And come hither, and I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart, which shall not be put out, till the things be performed which thou shalt begin to write.
2 Esdras 14:25