Leo Tolstoy Archive
Written: 1908
Source: From RevoltLib.com
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021
And Jesus said to his disciples: “The purpose of life is to strive to become as perfect as possible as God is. This is the only way. I go by it, and you know this way.” Then Thomas told him: “No, we don't know where you're going, and therefore we cannot know the way.” Jesus said: “I am going to the Father, and my teaching is the way to Him. You cannot connect with the Father of life in other way except through my teaching. Follow my teaching of love, and you’ll get to know the Father.”
Philip said: “Show us the Father.” And Jesus said: “Don’t you not know the Father? My teaching is that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Who will live by my teaching and follow my commandments, he’ll get to know the Father. I will die, and worldly people won’t see me, but my spirit will not die, and you will live by it. And then you’ll realize that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”
And Judas, not Iscariot but another one, said to him again: “Why will your spirit enter only us, but not all people?” And Jesus answered: “The Father loves him who follows my teaching, and my spirit lives in him. The Father does not love him who does not follow my teaching, and His spirit does not live in him. This teaching is not mine, but the Father’s. That's all I can tell you for now. But my spirit, the spirit of truth, will enter you after me, and will open everything to you, and then you will remember and understand much of what I have told you. And when you’ll understand that, you'll be peaceful, not by the worldly calmness with which worldly people become calm, but with such peacefulness of the spirit so that you will not fear anything anymore. You shouldn’t grieve that I go away from you. I am going to the Father, and from Him, just like the spirit of truth, I will come back to you and will enter your heart. You should not grieve but rejoice in my death, because instead of me and my body, my spirit will be with you in your heart, and this is better for you.” (John 14, 1-28)
Questions:
1) What did Jesus say about the true life?
2) What did Jesus answer to the question of Thomas about what is the way?
3) What did Jesus respond to the request of Phillip to show the Father?
4) What will be the consolation to his disciples?
5) What did Jesus respond to the question of Judas, why the spirit of God will not enter all the people?
6) What will happen to those who will believe in the teaching of Jesus?