Jesus taught us to live life religiously and by faith. He emphasized individual freedom and the transcendence of the spiritual over the material. How are the teachings of Jesus faring in our modern secularistic world.

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Transcript

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The Future of the Teachings of Jesus 

1. Jesus’ Teachings and Their Status in Today’s World

The Secular Threat (Ep. 12)

 

Jesus’ teaching to do the Father’s will. In Jesus’ personal religion, the gospel of the Kingdom, he taught that we are all sons and daughters of God, our loving heavenly Father. And as children of God, we are all brothers and sisters to one another in God’s heavenly family. Further, he emphasized that as children of God our part is to choose and do our Father’s will. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus proclaimed, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but rather he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 7:21) He taught us to pray in sincerity “Your kingdom come; your will be done” (Mt. 6:10; Mt. 26:42) and “Not my will, but yours, be done.” (Lk. 22:42)

Fundamental principles of doing the Father’s will. Doing the Father’s will is multifaceted. It includes many things such as living by faith, showing forth love, serving God and our fellow man, being born of the spirit and showing forth the fruit of the spirit, developing self-control, making spiritual progress, communion with God, forgiveness of others, morality and loyalty to duty, courage, righteousness, character growth, personality development, and achieving God’s unique mission for our lives.

Religious values taught by Jesus. The teachings of Jesus inspire us to live life religiously, to seek and uphold spiritual values. Such religious values are many and diverse. A few examples of the myriad of spiritual values involved in living a religious life (not previously cited) include unselfishness, altruism, mercy, fairness, justice, humility, meekness, patience, honesty, trustfulness, hope, peace, truth, goodness and reverence.

Individual freedom and the ability to choose God’s will over self-will. In this quick overview of some of Jesus’ most fundamental teachings and the spiritual values he taught we may recognize certain basic principles. Of special note is the fact that Jesus’ teachings affirm the pre-eminence of the individual over the group. His teachings emphasize the freedom of the individual, and the crucial fact that it is our personal will that is the determining factor in our human experience. This priceless power of free will grants us a choice that no animal can make; we may choose to dedicate our lives to the doing of our Father’s will; we may choose and affirm “It is my will that your will be done.” In contrast to being exclusively devoted to the service of self, Jesus taught the supreme satisfactions of the loving service of others. It is this choice to do the Father’s will over and above our self-will that most clearly distinguishes the faithful follower of Jesus and other genuine religions from those who live without any real religious faith.

The transcendence of the spiritual over the material. Another cardinal feature of Jesus’ teachings is his affirmation of the transcendence of the spiritual over the material. It is not that the material world is unreal; it is just as real as the spiritual world, but they are not of equal value. Jesus recognized the reality of both worlds but taught that the spiritual approach leads to the goal of human happiness and the kingdom of heaven, while an exclusive focus on the material world leaves us blind to higher spiritual realities and religious values.

The present status of Jesus’ teachings in today’s society. When we observe the fact that Jesus taught individual free will and the transcendence of the spiritual over the material it is obvious that such teachings are not faring well in our modern materialistic and secular society. The true social righteousness of Jesus’ teachings, such as the golden rule to treat others as we would have them treat us, has not appeared. We are failing to live up to the high spiritual ideals of Jesus. In this sense Jesus’ kingdom teachings have failed on our world; they have not become the dominant order of society. In fact, we are not only failing to make spiritual progress; we have fallen into a state of spiritual stagnation. This is because the world has refused to practice the principles of Jesus’ original gospel of the kingdom, the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Jesus’ teachings are still alive but are submerged beneath the surface of present-day religion and society.

Our modern secularistic society and its opposition to the religion of Jesus. Instead of a society based upon Jesus’ kingdom of individual freedom and spiritual pre-eminence our twenty-first century Western society is dominated by the humanistic philosophies of materialism, mechanism, naturalism, and secularism. Of these modern philosophies of living the most dangerous and threating is the militant secularism that grew to prominence in the last century. The thoughtless secularism of the average man in the street and the radical secularism of the social and political activist now constitute the greatest single threat to the widespread adoption of the way of Jesus on our world. This secular humanism that dominates modern society blights the budding spiritual experience of millions and stands directly counter to the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus’ teachings and the modern secular menace. The individual freedom and transcendence of the spiritual over the material taught by Jesus is under attack. The central concept of Jesus’ bestowal mission, the kingdom of God, has failed to materialize. The religious way of life is in decline and is being replaced by a militant secularism that not only denies God but also seeks to replace religious living with its own Godless philosophy of life. How did this extreme secularism come to dominate the Judeo-Christian heritage of the Western world? And most crucially, what is the future of the teachings of Jesus on a world dominated by such an extreme secularism that it seeks to destroy all religious thought and practice?

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