If you have ever read the four gospels, you know that the gospel of John stands out, from the very start: John 1:1-2 In [the] beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. *He* was in the beginning with God. This gospel is so striking that supposedly “most scholars” don’t think John, the son of Zebedee, an ordinary fisherman, wrote it. Among the reasons they give are the sophisticated Greek style of writing and the intellectual nature of its account of the life of Jesus. Those first two verses are used as part of the argument, where the claim is that the author is borrowing from the Platonic syncretism of the philosopher Philo of Alexandria.

There is a “like-for-like” rule in the world. Jesus acknowledged that when He said, You have heard it said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. But Jesus came to teach us a different like-for-like, Heaven’s version. He begins its explanation in the Sermon on the Mount when He says: In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. But that is only the beginning. It takes the whole Gospel for us to grasp its full implication: The way we treat people is the way we treat God.

Just because I claim to believe in Jesus, just because I claim to be a Christian, just because I go to Church every Sunday, doesn’t mean I truly take His words to heart… always. Does that mean I may not be who I think I am? Or is it that I slip, that I momentarily forget? Is it possible that I don’t know my own heart? That was the prophet Jeremiah’s conclusion: The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable; who can know it? But even if I don’t know it, there is One who does.

The changelessness of God manifests itself in all His Infinities. For instance, He is omnipresent. He is everywhere at once, and that will never change. That means I can never be away from His Presence. David was overwhelmed by this realization…

A recurring thought in Kierkegaard’s writing is the idea of the changelessness of God; an idea expressed succinctly by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews when he says: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever. He is the same to you and to me and to every other person in the world. Therefore, in that relationship between Him and me, there is only one variable: I am the only changeable part of the equation. The consequences of that relationship depend entirely on me. This can be good news or bad news

In this series I have been following Jesus’ last set of teachings to the crowds that gathered around Him… the last chance He would have to personally address them, to personally entreat them to enter the Kingdom. These lessons are now coming to an end. After these teaching sessions at the Temple, Jesus will concentrate on teaching His disciples the final set of lessons they would need to know before His mission was completed.