My Words Will Not Pass Away
24. Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides.” (Matthew, 15: 12 to 14)
25. “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew, 24: 35)
26. The words of Jesus will not pass away, because they will be true always. His moral code will be eternal, because that it contains conditions of well-doing which conduct man to his eternal destiny. But have his words been studied over, and purified of all alloy false interpretations? Have all the Christian sects seized the spirit of them? Has no one misconstrued the true sense of them in consequence of prejudices and ignorance of the laws of nature? Has no one made them an instrument of power to serve ambition and material interests, a stepping- stone, not for elevation to heaven, but for earthly elevation? Have they not all been given for a guide to the practice of the virtues which are made the express conditions upon which salvation depends? Are they not all exempt from the reproaches which he addressed to the Pharisees of his time? In short, are they not all, in theory and practice, the pure expression of his doctrine?
Truth, being one, it cannot be found in contrary affirmations. Jesus has not desired to give a double meaning to his words. If, then, the different sects contradict one another, if some consider as true that which others condemn as heresies, it is impossible that they are all right. If all had taken the true sense of the evangelical teaching, they would have taken the same ground of belief, and not formed different sects.
That which will not pass away is the true sense of the words of Jesus; that which will disappear is that false sense which men have built upon his words.
Jesus’ mission being that of bringing to men God’s thoughts, his pure doctrine alone can be their expression; for that reason he has said: “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.”
