“Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” (Matthew 4:10)

“Away from me, satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” (Matthew 4:10)

Who is 'satan' or 'the devil'?

This ends the exchange described in Matthew during which Jesus was tempted by the devil or satan. Just who is this person that Jesus is having conversations with? Is it really a person? Is the devil really someone who is challenging God and whom God cannot control?

The event unfolds during Jesus' fast of forty days and nights. Jesus was hungry:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (Matt. 4:1-2)

"The devil" is introduced in the text as "the tempter", translated from the Greek word πειράζω (peirazō) - meaning "to try, make trial of, test:"

The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." (Matt. 4:3)

Jesus responded by describing our identity as spiritual and our relationship with the Supreme Being:

“It is written : ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4)

But next we find that "the tempter" - the "devil" - now takes Jesus to "the holy city" - apparently Jerusalem:

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. (Matt. 4:5)

And then he tempts him with another possibility:

"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" (Matt. 4:6)

Jesus responded to this latest temptation:

“It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Matt. 4:7)

And this is precisely what "the tempter" is asking of Jesus - to put God to the test. And what is putting God "to the test" mean? We'll discuss this below.

Next "the devil" takes Jesus to another place and tempts him with another possibility:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." (Matt. 4:8-9)

So we must ask: Who is this person who can not only tempt Jesus with turning stones to food but can take him many miles away to Jerusalem and then also take him to a mountaintop to show him "all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor"?

Who has this kind of power of transport? And who has the power to give someone "all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor"?

And what about God? Does God not have such power? Doesn't God have the power to remove those powers of satan? Doesn't God have the ability to strike down the devil? Why, then, is the devil still around?

Who has 'all this' to give to Jesus?

Some sectarian institutions and their teachers threaten us that "the devil" or "satan" is a person who has somehow gotten out of God's control and is now going around tempting people. They also teach that all the suffering in the world is caused by "the devil" or "satan." That he has somehow gotten out of control and now he is going around messing things up for us and God.

It makes no sense to say that there is the existence of a Supreme Being - who is all-powerful - yet someone has gotten out of His control. As if God - which means omniscient - cannot control His creation.

This is an atheist concept: If someone has gotten out of God's control there is no God: A God who is not in control is not God.

This is hypocrisy. To say there is a God but God lost control over part of His creation is a nonsensical doctrine.

The reality is that there is a Supreme Being and He never loses control. There is never anyone out of His ultimate authority and control.

Is anything out of control?

This would mean that such a "tempter" or "devil" or "satan" is ultimately within God's control.

And this means that all the temptations that we are presented with are ultimately taking place with God's authority and permission.

The reality is that the Supreme Being arranged temptation. It is part of His energy that deceives us into thinking we will be happy if we act in a self-centered fashion within the physical world.

Temptation is ultimately designed by God to give us freedom of choice. Each of us has the freedom of choice to act in a myriad of ways.

Ultimately, we each have the choice to love others or love ourselves. We have the choice to be God-centered or self-centered.

We can also waiver between the two, in various ways. These are part of the choices each of us is given by the Supreme Being as He created us.

God created each of us to love Him and serve Him. But love requires freedom. We cannot be forced to love someone.

So the Supreme Being created each of us with the option to love Him or love ourselves.

The option of self-centeredness also has a number of gradients. We can still be self-centered and inflict less harm to others. Or we can not care at all, which can lead to becoming violent and even hateful.

Loving others also has gradients. These range from sacrificing oneself to help others to just trying to be kind when possible. We can love others more or less.

Regardless, this world provides choice: It requires us to make a choice in one respect or another - and at one gradient or another.

Isn't temptation a form of choice?

As such, the physical world continually gives us the choice, through temptation.

Temptation is set up through the mind and the senses. The senses, through nerve conduction and neurotransmitters, feed the mind physical attractions. And the mind concocts designs for us to try to enjoy those attractions.

The combination of these sensual attractions and the mind's concoctions create the temptations that pull us into the physical world's net.

And this net of the physical world keeps pulling at us - constantly giving us the choice of remaining away from the Supreme Being. This, as stated in Matthew 4:3, is what a test is: A choice.

Yes, we can certainly personify this system - as it has been personified by ancient teachers. And it is not incorrect to say that the Supreme Being has others help Him manage things. Yes, the Supreme Being has many servants and those who don't serve Him - who help maintain the physical world from different aspects.

For example, there have been many cruel leaders in the past who treated their subjects with painful consequences. Where was God in these circumstances? Was God not around when millions of Jews were persecuted by German leaders? Was He not around when millions were slaughtered and raped by African overlords? Did He lose control during these times as some institutions like to teach?

Certainly not. None of those evil leaders were challengers to God. None of them are out of God's control. Yes, each abused the power they were given by virtue of their own consequences, and they will each have to suffer the consequences of their actions, just as their actions executed the consequences of others' previous actions.

What we do not understand about these circumstances is that we are not these physical bodies. They are temporary vehicles. The pain we feel when they are damaged are nerve impulses to our brains. Just as the driver of a car is not harmed when the car breaks down, the spiritual person within is not harmed when the body is harmed or killed.

We might compare this to a video game. The video game icon we identify with might be shot or even killed, but we are not shot or killed. We simply turn off the game and walk away from the computer. In the same way, the spirit-person leaves the physical body when it dies.

So these experiences that produce pain within the physical body are merely teaching opportunities, just as being shot in a video game can teach us.

The bottom line is that the physical world - the physical senses and the mind - was set up perfectly to offer us temptations that allow us to exercise our freedom to not love God.

Did God create this world as a place of choice?

Ultimately, in order to provide us with the choice not to love Him, the Supreme Being created a separate world - a virtual world - to allow us the ultimate dimension of choice. Here we get to make choices regarding love and selfishness. But we can also choose to completely forget God, or even deny God's existence.

This physical world was created for those of us who chose not to love Him to play out our self-centeredness without having to see Him.

Why would He make the choice complete? Because only this will allow us to make a real choice to love Him out of freedom. The option of not loving Him has to be real and it has to be executable. What is the benefit of having choice if we have no way of exercising one of the options?

So the Supreme Being created this dimension - the physical world - in order for us to exercise our choice not to love and serve Him.

And these physical bodies are the vehicles that we use to access the physical world. These bodies are not us - they are vehicles we utilize temporarily. They are like a car a person gets in and drives for a while. After a few decades, the physical body dies and we move on.

We are spiritual in essence. But our spiritual identity and the Supreme Being are hidden from the perception of the physical body and mind. Why?

To give us the complete freedom to exercise our desire not to love and serve God. If God was ever-present to our physical eyes and mind as He is in the spiritual realm then how could we play out our fantasies to be independent of Him and seek out our personal pleasure, fame and glory?

We couldn't. If we were faced with His presence we'd be unable to ignore Him.

We might compare this to how parents will give a child their own bedroom. While they own the house and have complete control over the house including the bedroom, they give the child their own room so the child can have some privacy and not have to have their parents looking over their shoulders all the time.

But this privacy is only perceived. The parents can go into the room anytime they want. They can look through all the kid's stuff as they want. But they may not because they want to teach the child respect. They may respect the child's privacy as part of their raising of the child.

Just as the child is given their own room and the perception of privacy, the Supreme Being has given each of us the physical world and this physical body and mind to act out our self-centered desires. The perception of privacy from Him gives us the freedom to choose as we want, without having Him "in our face" so to speak.

After all, how could we make an objective choice to love God if we couldn't get away from Him?

And just like the child's bedroom is always within the control of the parents, the Supreme Being is always in control over the physical world. He just set up things so that the world seems independent from Him, and yet still feeds back to each of us the consequences of our various choices.

And this is why there is suffering in the world. It is not because some guy (devil or satan) got out of control. It is because the Supreme Being designed the physical world to produce precise consequences for our activities. When we do something good, there is a good consequence, and when we do something that harms another, we get harmed in return.

This consequence system is designed to teach us, just as the best way of parenting has been shown to be consequence training rather than physical discipline.

So while the physical world is set up by God to allow us the freedom to choose, it also teaches us. Why? Because our innate identity is spiritual - and our innate behavior is loving. So the physical world has been designed to point us towards our innate spiritual nature.

But it still gives us the ultimate freedom to choose whether we want to love and serve God or love and serve ourselves. This is God's perfect design.

Is this a symbolic conversation between Jesus and the 'devil'?

There may be a practical element to Jesus' fast and walk through the desert. But this exchange between Jesus and the devil is certainly metaphorical - and symbolic.

The symbolism used in the event that played out between Jesus and "satan" portrays our freedom of choice precisely. It illustrates how Jesus was given the choice to exercise his self-centeredness, by being offered the notion of seeking wealth, power, and fame within the physical world.

But Jesus did not choose those. He chose to love and serve the Supreme Being - and "worship" Him - rather than "testing" God.

This is the teaching purpose of this event portrayed using personification and symbolism. We each have this choice to make: we can love and serve ourselves by chasing the various concoctions of our mind as fed by the senses - and executed through the chase for wealth, fame and power.

Or we can love and serve the Supreme Being. We have that choice.

This is the lesson provided by this event, and this is the sum and substance of the real teachings of Jesus. Jesus came to deliver to us this message that if we make the choice to love and serve the Supreme Being as our Best Friend and Soul Mate, we will be fulfilled, simply because this is our innate spiritual nature.

This is why Jesus states clearly:

"‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’"

*Here is the translation of this verse from the Lost Gospels of Jesus:

“Go away, enemy of God! For it is written, “You shall worship the LORD your God and Him only shall you serve.” (Matt. 4:10)

"I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another ..." (Matthew 24:2)

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." (Matthew 24:1-2)

What does Jesus mean by the stones being 'thrown down'?

The key to Jesus' statement about the stones is the last phrase, "thrown down," which has been translated from the Greek word καταλύω (katalyō). While καταλύω (katalyō) can be translated to 'overthrown' when used metaphorically, the clear meaning of the word is 'to dissolve, disunite, destroy, demolish' according to the lexicon.

The verse previous to this one (Matthew 24:1) describes the context of the statement. Jesus' disciples came to him discussing the buildings. Jesus had been teaching within the temple, and as he was walking away, his disciples began talking about the buildings of the temple. The phrase "to call his attention to its buildings" refers to some redeeming aspect of the temple buildings.

To this Jesus describes the destruction of the buildings, saying not only will there not be one stone on top of another at some point in the future, but its very stones will crumble, and the building will be destroyed.

In other words, the temple buildings and their stones are not permanent. They will eventually crumble.

The word "thrown down" or "torn down" in other translations is taken from the Greek word, καταλύω (katalyō). This means to be destroyed or demolished.

Is this a prophecy?

Many have interpreted this statement by Jesus to be some kind of prophecy about the temple and/or church.

Such a thesis misses the point Jesus was trying to make.

Is Jesus talking about a particular event that will tear down this particular temple, or the nature of buildings in general?

Again, the last word indicates something done by nature. Could men dissolve stones during those times? What about fire?

There certainly were fires when the Romans burnt down the Temple of Jerusalem and many other buildings during Roman-Jewish wars that followed Jesus' departure. In this respect, Jesus' statement could be considered a prophecy with respect to the Temple being destroyed by the Romans.

But did the fires dissolve the stones?

In modern times, archaeologists have dug up the remains of old temples and other buildings that existed in ancient times. What do they find? Primarily, they find broken up and partially dissolved stones and other structural elements that were once tall buildings. They find that the stones have degraded into rubble and the remains of these buildings are merging into the surrounding soils. Only by archeological technical analysis can it be determined that the remains were once part of buildings.

So what happened to those temples that Jesus was discussing? Yes, they also since collapsed and nature has all but dissolved the stones, while other buildings have been built on top of that ground. Within another thousand years, the stones further dissolve, turning into soil.

This means Jesus was trying to teach his disciples, who were so impressed with the Temple buildings, that these buildings - along with everything else in the physical world - are temporary.

Jesus' message is that all the forms and structures of the physical world are temporary. This goes for our physical bodies as well. There is no permanence here. Everything decomposes/dissolves with time - including our physical bodies. As soon as we leave our body at the time of death, the body begins to decompose, and our membership within a particular church sect or denomination dissolves with it.

On the other hand, the spiritual dimension, our spiritual selves - and our relationship with God - are all permanent. They never go away. They never dissolve.

This was confirmed as Jesus spoke about the effect of his teachings upon his students:

"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish" (John 10:28)

Jesus confirmed the mechanism that produces eternal life:

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33)

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never ..." (Matthew 24:35-36)

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matthew 24:35-36)

When will this 'day or hour' happen?

As discussed with the previous text, some make the case that Jesus is speaking of the end of the world - someday in the not too distant future when all the sinners will be annihilated and Jesus will ride over the clouds on horseback or something and sweep up all those who are saved.

Is this true? Well, first of all, Jesus spoke these words over 2,000 years ago, and what they describe still hasn't happened. So was Jesus taking his disciples for a ride? Was he threatening them with the end of the world when it was not going to happen for thousands of years after their bodies were dead and decomposed?

Don't be ridiculous. Jesus is speaking about a real day and hour that something will happen to each of us. Let's understand Jesus' statement here carefully.

What did he mean by 'heaven and earth will pass away'?

The "heaven" that Jesus is referring to here, from the Greek οὐρανός (ouranos), which means, according to the lexicon, "the vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it, the universe, the world, the aerial heavens or sky, the region where the clouds and the tempests gather, and where thunder and lightning are produced" and "the sidereal or starry heavens."

In other words, Jesus is not speaking of "heaven" as in the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm is eternal.

Rather, Jesus is speaking of the temporary nature of the physical universe, which includes the earth - translated from the Greek word γῆ (gē), which means "arable land," and "the ground, the earth as a standing place." It also includes the sky - translated from οὐρανός (ouranos) in this context.

This entire physical world is temporary. It has a beginning and it has an end. This has been confirmed as we've seen entire solar systems explode and collapse into black holes. This illustrates that each universe is temporary - along with all of the planets and life forms - physical bodies - that live within each universe.

What does 'my words will never pass away' mean?

"Words" here is being translated from the Greek word λόγος (logos), which means teaching or doctrine according to the lexicon. In fact, "words" is a poor translation choice because Jesus is not speaking of "words" - he is speaking of his teachings.

So why will his teachings "never pass away?" Because they are coming from the Supreme Being. Jesus confirmed this when he said:

“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the One who sent me." (John 7:16)

and

"For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken." (John 12:49)

These verses and others clearly illustrate that Jesus is speaking for the Supreme Being. Therefore, his teachings were coming from God - and because God is eternal, Jesus' teachings are also eternal.

Why does 'no one know about that day or hour'?

If Jesus is predicting the end of the world in the future, why would he say this? It would be a contradiction to say he is predicting the end of the world but he doesn't know when it will happen.

So what is "that day and hour" that Jesus is referring to here then?

The particular "day and hour" Jesus is discussing with his disciples "privately" (Matt. 24:3) is their moment of death.

This is clear because Jesus is speaking of a moment - not an hour. This is confirmed by the use of the Greek word ὥρα - which has been translated here to "hour." Rather, the word means, "any definite time, point of time, moment."

Now if we consider this logically, this cannot be referring to some kind of "end of the world" scenario as described by some. Their scenario would take some time - for Jesus to ride through the sky and kill all the sinners and save all the "saved" - and therefore make judgment upon each person.

Thus Jesus could not be describing this. Even if we accepted that ὥρα did mean "hour" - which it doesn't here - then it also could not take an hour even, as they are describing it - with all the billions of people around the planet, plus all the billions of people who would be hanging out in the Church's speculative "purgatory" state awaiting judgment.

But death is a different matter. A person's physical body may go downhill for a while but there is one moment - that moment when the spirit-person leaves the physical body - the time of death occurs. This departure takes place at a particular moment in time. This is the "moment" Jesus is referring to here.

What does 'not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father' mean?

Jesus is clearly describing the moment of death here - a moment no one but the Supreme Being knows in advance.

This particular day and hour of each his followers' deaths is uncertain to everyone but God.

As Jesus describes, he, nor the angels in the spiritual realm do not know when the physical body will die and the spirit-person leaves.

So why is this a big deal? Why is Jesus discussing the time of death with his disciples? Because they were concerned about the coming Jewish-Roman wars that Jesus was predicting prior to this. Jesus was foretelling - in the verses surrounding this one - that they will likely die along with the hundreds of thousands of other Jews and early Christians who died at the hands of the Romans. This occurred in a brutal war that began about 30 years after this discussion and ended more than six decades later.

This is indicated with statements such as, "let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains" (Matt. 24:16) and "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." (Matt. 24:34).

During the Jewish-Roman wars - which began around 66 AD and lasted through about 130 AD - the Romans brutalized the Israelites. They burnt down most of their cities and villages, including their temples and libraries. Hundreds of thousands and likely millions- including most of Jesus' followers - were massacred. Jesus was warning them of this event.

So certainly his disciples became worried - but Jesus is giving them reassurance. He is telling them that while their physical bodies are temporary - and will die one day - his teachings coming from the Supreme Being were not temporary. He was telling them that they could rely upon his teachings.

At the moment of death, we lose everything. We lose all the money we've made and saved. We lose the house, cars, and whatever other material possessions we've accumulated. We also lose all of our relationships. We are no longer the husband or wife of someone else. We are no longer the father or mother of someone.

We also lose our reputation and any fame we might possess. Our entire identity is stripped away. All vanishes with a blink of the eye and the stop of a heartbeat.

Why? Because all of these are related to the physical body we are wearing. Once the physical body dies and we leave it behind, we also leave all these other elements behind as we move to our next destination.

What happens at the moment of death?

What Jesus is saying is that at the moment of death, the physical world will vanish as we separate from the physical body. This includes the earth below our feet and the sky over our heads. The entire environment will disappear.

The physical body is simply a tool that gives us access the environment of the physical world. The physical world is like a virtual landscape in a computer program or a video game - often referred to as the environment.

Just consider accessing the environment of a particular video game. We need a computer loaded with a particular program to access this environment. We also need a computer monitor, a keyboard and some other gear (mouse, joystick, whatever) to access the computer game's tools. Without the computer, the program, the monitor, keyboard and gear, we could not access the video game's virtual environment.

It is the same with the physical world. The environment of the physical world is accessible by someone with a physical body. The senses of the physical body can be compared with the computer's monitor and speakers, and our ability to manipulate the body through the brain is like manipulating a computer program with the mouse or keyboard.

And just as a person can get up from the computer and turn it off, we immediately leave the environment of the physical world when our physical body dies.

Of course, there is a short period of time after death where a person may still observe the physical world with the more subtle bodies which include the mind - as evidenced by clinical death studies. Depending upon our destination, we will likely carry this subtle physical covering to our next destination.

However, for some people - those who have committed suicide or have spent a considerable amount of their lives in drunkenness or drug abuse - they may become locked in a state of suspension within the subtle environment and their subtle physical body. This is because they cut their body's life short. They must now make up that time with a residual subtle body.

In this subtle (ghostly) body, the person can observe the physical world but is unable - except in some rare cases - to manipulate or engage in it. This might be compared to watching a video game but not being able to access any controls in order to participate. It is a state filled with emptiness and frustration, as we see those we knew, but cannot contact them.

The physical world can also be accessed by angels and God at any time. Because God is the ultimate "Programmer" of the physical world, He has free reign. He also often sends angels from the spiritual world to help particular individuals. This is His prerogative, as the Owner of this virtual landscape, the physical world.

By saying, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away," Jesus is telling his students they can take away his teachings. Even though their bodies will pass away, they can take his teachings with them at the time of death of the body and thus return to the spiritual realm with their spiritual selves. And what was Jesus' most important teaching?

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant ..." (Matthew 24:45-51)

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 24:45-51)

What is the 'hour he is not aware of'?

The time of death in this parable is the "hour he is not aware of." The death of our body comes as a surprise to each of us. No one knows the time of death, even Jesus, as he confirmed with this statement earlier in this discussion:

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father." (Matt. 24:36)

Jesus is talking about an inevitable event that he knows will occur for each person: The moment of death. Every body dies. Every one of us must leave our temporary physical body at some point. But only the Supreme Being knows the precise moment ahead of time of our departure from this body.

Why did Jesus compare the servants?

Jesus goes further in this parable, in comparing the fates of "a faithful and wise servant" and the servant who is "wicked" and "begins to beat his fellow servants."

So why is Jesus comparing these two types of servants?

Because we are all servants. Each of us - whether we choose to serve the Supreme Being or serve our senses, family and/or country - are servants. This is our natural position: The Supreme Being is Master and we are His servants.

Yet our role is to serve out of love, and love requires freedom: He thus gave us the freedom to serve Him or not.

Jesus' parable is an apt analogy because choosing to serve God naturally begins the process of re-establishing our loving relationship with Him. This is because in order to serve someone, we have to learn what pleases them.

This establishing of a relationship with the Supreme Being is represented in Jesus' parable by the master putting the responsible servant in charge.

It is not as if Jesus was teaching that we should serve God so He will put us in charge of His stuff and of others. We must look deeper. A master who puts his servant in charge of his possessions does this because he is trusting the servant. Such trust requires a relationship.

Who is the 'faithful and wise servant'?

In Jesus' analogy, the wise servant simply makes a choice to be obedient to his master. After some time of doing what pleases the master, the master begins to trust the servant. Here again, the servant is making the choice to do what pleases the master, and this choice - and the actions that represent it - creates trust.

The wicked servant also makes a choice. He chooses to ignore the wishes of his master. He beats the other servants and gets drunk when the master is away. In the same way, each of us can choose to ignore the Supreme Being and go about trying to find self-centered pleasure in the physical world - often at the expense of others. Worse are those who knowingly harm others.

Where is the 'place with the hypocrites'?

Where is this place that Jesus compares to "a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth"? Is this hell? Many interpreters agree that Jesus is describing hell.

But where is hell? Is hell some dungeon deep beneath the earth's surface where people are chained up and beaten by a horned red devil - causing them to weep and gnash their teeth? If so, why haven't we found this place as we've drilled miles into the crust of the earth then?

And why - when these people die - do their bodies remain within their graves, decomposing? If they were sent to the dungeon underground the bodies would not be rotting in their graves would they?

Scientifically speaking, we are not these physical bodies. Our physical bodies will die at some point. Science has proven that the self (or spirit) rises from the body at the time of death, looking down upon the body before departing.

We are spirit-persons who dwell within these temporary physical bodies. And when these bodies die, we leave them behind. Where do we go?

What does 'gnashing and weeping' mean?

The word "gnashing" comes from the Greek word βρυγμός (brygmos) which means, according to the lexicon, "used to denote extreme anguish and utter despair."

And this also fits with the word "weeping," as those who are in extreme anguish and utter despair often also weep.

Where do people weep and have extreme anguish and utter despair? We can see this all around us. We can turn on the news on any day of the week and see people weeping and in extreme anguish and utter despair.

Yes, right here, in the physical world, we find weeping and utter despair. While it may not affect each of us at the same time and in the same way, each of us will have a good measure of weeping and utter despair at some point in our lives.

For those in the West, there might appear to be less physical despair, but there is still despair and anguish - due to loneliness and emptiness. Among those in poorer countries, we find utter physical despair and extreme anguish.

And even among those who live comfortably, there is still despair, pain, disease, and death to contend with, along with broken relationships and heartaches. Yes, there are certainly different levels - but the lessons of this physical world are often taught through despair, pain, and anguish.

In other words, hell is in the physical world, although some environments and species within the physical world undergo worse hell than others.

Why does Jesus and other teachers teach that hell is a place we can go after death then? This is because Jesus and others from his lineage all taught transmigration: If we do not return to the spiritual world at the death of this body, we assume another physical body. And with this physical body, we suffer the consequences of our prior activities. Jesus and his disciples confirmed this when they asked him why a man had been born blind:

His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)

This very question assumes that both Jesus and his disciples accepted that a person could sin prior to being born. In order to sin, the person must have the facility to sin: a physical body.

We also find that many early church teachers such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen Adamantius and St. Augustine all assumed transmigration in their teachings. Several centuries later, after Christianity became dominated by the Romans and its surrogate the Roman Catholic Church, the teaching was banned because having another chance within another lifetime wasn't as severe a threat.

And therein lies the answer to where hell is. How we live during the lifetime of this body determines where we go at the time of death - as Jesus indicates in this parable. Should a person hurt others and live selfishly, we will take on another body - one that precisely experiences (both good and bad) the consequences of the activities of our current lifetime.

Why is there suffering?

This answers the oft-asked question: If God exists, why is there so much suffering? Why are some children born in poverty or with diseases?

There is so much suffering because some of us choose to hurt others and cause pain. We cause suffering. The physical world is simply a place of consequence - meant to teach us and help us rehabilitate from our disease of self-centeredness. Those who cause pain to others simply receive that same pain in kind.

The same goes for pleasure or good fortune. In other words, whatever situation we find ourselves in is due to the consequences of prior activities. And those born in a situation of suffering caused others suffering in their previous lifetime(s).

Transmigration and suffering, however, must be understood within the context of who we are and what is our identity. The bodies we wear are simply vehicles. They are not us. The body we wear changes from a baby body to a teenage body to an adult body to an elderly body and then dies. We remain the same person despite this changing body.

The body is like a car - we sit down in it and drive it for a while, and then get out and get another car. It is not actually us. Therefore, the pains and pleasures that take place in the body are not happening to us, much as a dented fender on a car doesn't necessarily affect the driver. Yes, the person within is affected by what we learn during our occupation of a physical body. But we exist outside of the body before it is born and after it dies.

The culmination of learning is when we decide to return home to our relationship with the Supreme Being. Those who use their lives to re-develop their loving relationship with God meet a different fate at the time of death. They leave this hellish physical world and return to God in the spiritual realm.

And even when they are living within the body - if they are lovingly serving the Supreme Being - they are ex-facto within the spiritual realm. This is why Jesus gave a clear instruction:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38)

Is God a person?

How can we love an impersonal force? The word religion comes from the Latin word ligare, which means “that which binds.” In order to "bind" oneself to God, we must establish a relationship (or bond) with Him.

How can we bond with a vague impersonal force? Bonding with someone requires there to be someone to bond with. Bonding with God - being religious - requires us to establish a relationship with God.

This also means those who see the Supreme Being as an impersonal force are not actually religious: They are simply executing rituals in return for some reward - their activity is done in exchange for not going to hell.

This is business. It is not a relationship.

Just consider if we pretended to be friends with someone only so they could get us into a concert. Should they find out we were only trying to get into the concert, they'd feel pretty offended, yes?

Besides, who is it that is going to save us? A vague impersonal force who becomes a man and gets crucified? This is ridiculous. God does not need to become crucified to save us.

God is a person, and He can save whomever he wants at any time. But it is us who choose whether we become saved or not. We are the ones who are choosing whether we want to re-establish our loving relationship with God. God loves us unconditionally and wants each of us to come home to Him.

We are the ones who are choosing to stay away from Him.

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called ...'” (Matthew 25:14-30)

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'” (Matthew 25:14-30)

What does this parable of the 'talents' mean?

Many sectarian teachers have interpreted this parable by Jesus to be discussing the accumulation of material things, money, skills or other physical items. This is a misinterpretation.

The word translated to "talents" here (in NIV 1984) and in most other Biblical versions, including the King James and the New King James - comes from the Greek word τάλαντον (talanton). This word means, according to the lexicon: "the scale of a balance, a balance, a pair of scales;" "that which is weighed, a talent;" "a weight varying in different places and times" and "a sum of money weighing a talent and varying in different states and according to the changes in the laws regulating currency."

The NIV 2011 translators have thus modified the translation of this Greek word from "talents" to "bags of gold." Most other translations have used "talents" with the exception of the NLT, which translated this to "bags of silver" in their most recent translation.

While translating the word τάλαντον (talanton) to "talents" is a bit curious, translating it to "bags of gold" goes to the further extreme. Certainly Jesus did not literally say "bags of gold." In what situation would servants be given "bags of gold" by their master?

Money - or any other exchangeable commodity in general - is symbolic in Jesus' parable. While the "talents" being described by Jesus are seemingly counted as money is counted, Jesus uses the talent in his parable because a talent was considered quite valuable. One talent during those times was worth more than a thousand dollars in our money today.

This matters not, however, because Jesus was not teaching about money here. He was teaching about one's relationship with the Supreme Being.

The master in the story symbolizes the Supreme Being, and the different servants of the master symbolize God's children - each of us - created by God to be His loving servants. But because love requires freedom, the Supreme Being also gave each of us the freedom to serve Him or not.

This freedom is being symbolized in the parable by the fact that the master gave the talents to his servants and then went away, giving them the freedom to invest those talents any way they wished.

The "talents" given by the master symbolize our unique relationship with God - expressed by our individual abilities to provide service to God. The more "talents" the servant was given, the greater the ability to express their service. Thus, the "talent" in Jesus' parable relates to the level of service to God a person can render, as well as the level of their loving relationship with God.

Just as the talents were given out to the servants by the master, everything we possess in the physical world, along with our relationship with the Supreme Being - has been given to us. We own nothing.

How do we know we own nothing? Because when our body dies, everything we once thought we owned is taken away from us: Poof - it is gone in a flash.

Does ownership require control?

A person who cannot control something is not the owner of that something.

And because we lose everything we thought we owned in the physical world, we cannot claim ownership over it.

Thus the things that we are given in this physical world are on loan to us. We may be allowed to use them for a while, but we cannot control them. They will be taken from us at some point so we must admit that we don't own them because we cannot control them.

To claim ownership over something on loan to us might be compared to borrowing a library book and then claiming we own the book. If we did that, the library could theoretically label us a thief - trying to claim the library book as our own.

Jesus is not speaking of material things here. He is using the concept of talents to symbolize a greater gift - exchanging a loving relationship with the Supreme Being.

The reason this is important is that Jesus is not concerned with the physical body and the temporary names and forms of this world. This is confirmed by statements such as:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." (Matthew 10:28)

Jesus wasn't concerned about the future of the physical body of his students, or his own for that matter. The body is temporary and all those things connected with the body will be lost at the time of death. But we take with us our relationship with the Supreme Being. That is because our relationship with the Supreme Being is outside the confines of time and space. It is a spiritual relationship. And because we are spiritual, this is what we can take away from this lifetime - assuming we develop it.

Do we each have an equal opportunity to love God?

Jesus' parable tells us that each of us has the opportunity to redevelop our personal relationship with God at some point during our lives. Those who do not utilize and develop this relationship are being compared to the servant who buried his talent in the ground. This is interesting, as those who refuse to develop their relationship with God are in fact, burying that opportunity so not only will they not use it, but neither can anyone else.

The servant who used his talents to gain more talents symbolizes a person who utilizes what they are given to develop their relationship with the Supreme Being.

Notice here that in Jesus' story, there is no difference in the response the master gives to the servant relative to the number of talents they earned back. The master is pleased regardless of how much. This symbolizes the fact that God is not petty. Any progress towards increasing our affection and love for Him is appreciated, and any sincere service rendered for Him is appreciated without regard to the amount or volume.

The Supreme Being simply wants our love. He is the most beautiful and gracious person. He is our lovable best friend, our constant companion, and the one person we can always rely upon. To remember this through our lives, and to build upon this fact will bring us closer and closer to Him. This is the meaning of Jesus' statement: "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance."

Those of us who ignore this message, and refuse to accept Jesus' teachings and God's call to bring us back to Him, are unfortunately destined to continue suffering in this physical world lifetime after lifetime.

Should we "bury" the jewels of knowledge given to us by Jesus, we are faced with continued loneliness and physical suffering as we try to enjoy the physical world within different physical bodies.

Living within physical bodies in suffering situations is being described as "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" because the physical body is born in pain and generally lives a life of pain and suffering, with small periods of relief in between.

Jesus wants us to redevelop our loving relationship with God so we can return to our home in the spiritual realm. This is where we belong, and this is why he instructed us:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-40)