NEUOFFENBARUNGDeutscher Text · Book contents
5 February 1844, evening
[Ste.01_027,01] ‘I receive no honour from human beings.’
[Ste.01_027,02] In a few words this passage makes known the covenant I have with human beings, which is no covenant of honour. Human beings as they are truly do Me no honour. Nor did I create them in order that they might honour Me.
[Ste.01_027,03] But I have a covenant with human beings, and its name is love. It means something quite different from paying honour.
[Ste.01_027,04] Who are those who have themselves honoured? The princes and the great of the world.
[Ste.01_027,05] Why do they have themselves honoured? Because they would be more than human beings, although their own consciousness tells them they are no more than human beings.
[Ste.01_027,06] What is the honour one pays to someone? At its very root it is nothing but fear of the stronger and mightier. The weaker fears the blows and mercilessness of the mightier. So he grovels before him, honours him and virtually worships him, so that the mightier, bribed by such flattery, may spare him the blows. But the more reverential the weaker grows towards the stronger, the more hungry for honour and the more cruel the stronger becomes.
[Ste.01_027,07] The question here is whether such honour is fruit of noble seed or evil seed. I think the seed will be as the fruit is!
[Ste.01_027,08] Do you suppose, then, that I ought to receive from human beings what is an abomination and the most loathsome stench before Me?
[Ste.01_027,09] On what ground should I have human beings honour Me? Because I am God and they are My creatures? Because I am almighty and all human beings are nothing beside Me?
[Ste.01_027,10] What should I gain from such honour? Would I thereby become more God, or would My almighty power grow greater?
[Ste.01_027,11] Among human beings this is more pardonable. When many weaker people greatly honour a stronger one, he gains power and standing by it. But what gain is there for Me if people honour Me like others who are great on earth? I think the keenest-sighted cherub could not discover this gain with the very best microscope that magnified an atom into a principal central sun. For I am God, almighty from eternity.
[Ste.01_027,12] Could I become any more through the honours human beings pay Me? Hardly, I think. So nowhere have I issued a law, ‘You shall honour God your Lord above all things!’ It says only to love Him above all things. That is why the verse before us says I do not seek honour from human beings. There is already One within Me who truly honours Me from eternity.
[Ste.01_027,13] You can readily see from this little verse how much joy I have in deeds done ‘Ad maiorem Dei gloriam’, or as you say in the world, ‘All to the glory of God!’ Whoever does not honour Me in his heart as a bride burning with love honours her bridegroom, his honour is an abomination before Me!
[Ste.01_027,14] What do I get from ‘Lord, we honour You!’ repeated a thousand times while the hearts are full of filth? Let all hell heap its refuse upon such honour!
[Ste.01_027,15] For all who honour Me in this ceremonial way are those who cry ‘Lord, Lord!’ They may drone a thousand litanies to Me and say, ‘Lord, we honour You and praise Your strength!’, ‘Lord, we beseech You, hear us!’ and ‘Lord, have mercy upon us!’, and add a thousand times ‘Glory be to God the Father!’, and so on.
[Ste.01_027,16] Yet I shall never heed such babble and shall always say to those who say ‘Lord, Lord!’, ‘Depart from Me, for I have never known you! You had prayers of honour and litanies in abundance. Why did you not also devise a litany that might say in a living way, instead of “Lord, we honour You!”, “Dear holy Father, we love You!”?’
[Ste.01_027,17] Someone will object, ‘God must be honoured! It is a noble fruit of the true fear of God. For whoever does not fear God is capable of every evil deed.’
[Ste.01_027,18] But I say: though fear of God is better than doing evil deeds, no one's eternal life will grow from such fear of God, since a fearful heart is already under judgement.
[Ste.01_027,19] Whoever refrains from evil only for fear of Me will have a hard trial to stand. No human spirit can attain bliss in fear of Me. First his fear will be taken away, and then it will be seen what he does without fear of Me.
[Ste.01_027,20] So too on earth many prisoners in dungeons are kept within lawful order by fear of punishment. But once they are set free after serving their sentences, they are ten times worse than before.
[Ste.01_027,21] All spirits of hell live and subsist in the greatest fear of Me. Merely to see Me from afar or hear My name is the most dreadful thing to them! But what fool will claim that the spirits of hell are good because they fear Me so greatly?
[Ste.01_027,22] Let Me give an example. Suppose somewhere on earth there were an exceedingly good man who, though very wealthy, was himself the greatest love, gentleness and kindness, and who always received in the most loving way everyone who came to him, of whatever station or nation, friend or enemy. What person would be such a great fool as to fear such a man more than an executioner?
[Ste.01_027,23] Yet what human being is better, more loving and gentler than I? And still people would rather fear Me than love Me with the greatest trust!
[Ste.01_027,24] Yet I say that those who fear and honour Me seem to do so for good reason, for they know that their heart is destitute of all love. So they wish to make up for it with Me by fear.
[Ste.01_027,25] But it goes with them as with a bride who has been unfaithful to her most faithful bridegroom and has become a prostitute. Why did she become one? Because she gave up the love in her heart for her bridegroom.
[Ste.01_027,26] When the bridegroom comes, will he look upon and accept his bride, filled with trembling fear, as he would if she had come to meet him with a heart aflame? Will he not perhaps say to her:
[Ste.01_027,27] ‘How you look! I have never seen you like this. Why do you tremble before me, who loved you above all? Truly, I cannot know you in this state! What have I ever done to you that you should fear me? How could such fear displace your former love? How am I to make you happy now, when you fear me and do not love me? So out of love for you I must withdraw, so that your fear of me may torment you no longer in your heart!’
[Ste.01_027,28] See, in this example ‘I do not know you, you who say “Lord, Lord!”’ is explained plainly and clearly. So I do not want the honour of human beings as the fruit of fear. I want faithful, childlike love!
[Ste.01_027,29] Seek after that in your hearts, and I shall be able to draw near to you, though not in your honour and fear. Be doers of My Word, free in love and free from the judgement of fear. In this you will find eternal life and Me, your Father! Amen.