Learning Point No 348
There are laws of the land and there are also spiritual laws or out of bound markers. You may refer to the latter as the laws of God.
Be it the laws of the land or the laws of God, they are not for men to enforce but to comply. Do not take the laws into your own hands.
If you do, then there will be more issues brewing for society. There will be less of the desirable peace and more of the very disharmony we don't wish to have. Life cannot go on smoothly and trouble will arise with men over every other issue and at every turn and corner.
To ensure this be not the case, men must not try to police others but let the authority and police do that. This has to be and there cannot be any other way.
In the spiritual world, men must not police the way other men should pray, worship and relate to God and saints. Men must not speak and act for God to chastise fellow men in the name of God and saints.
God and saints can do that. They do not need men to do that. If they do, then they are no saints. God will no longer be God.
Anyway, there is inbuilt by divine design, the law of cause and effect. We reap what we sow. We learn from mistakes. We have freewill and that is the blessing by Heaven. We must use it wisely.
Trying to act as though we can speak for God and saints is not worthwhile. We will end up portraying God in bad light. We end up attributing to God and saints attributes that they should not have, like anger, wrath, jealousy, intolerance, callousness and possessiveness.
We end up deciding for God and saints. We put words in the mouths of God and saints. We end up deputizing for God and saints to lord over other men. We end up taking the laws in our own hands, be these the laws of God or the laws of the land.
We may, for instance end up ensuring an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth instead of offering the left cheek when slapped on the right cheek. Capital and corporal ways of punishment are the ways of men and incorporated into the laws of the land. Even then, this will invariably be moderated by rehabilitation.
With God and saints, there is no punishment of any sorts but love for men who erred. Men may cause hardship and woes to others but they too suffer from their own errors. They do end up in hell, be it hell on earth or in the afterlife.
But there is no damnation or eternal hell. God and saints will give many chances and help even those in hell to better themselves - to rehabilitate and be on the way to heaven and sainthood.
Man punishes but God don't. Man suffers and stands to lose when he errs. But God blesses him if he can learn from his errors and be wiser from the learning.
Lord Bo Tien says that men must obey the laws of the land even if they are spiritual men. Obey both the laws of Man as well as the laws of Heaven.
Jesus said, "Give to Caesar (Man) what is due to Caesar (Man) and to God what is due to God."
The men of old did say that when in "Rome", do what the "Romans" do. The "Romans" may be wrong but what can you do.
If you don't do as they do, you may be persecuted and crucified unless you can run away and stay out of the limelight.
If you want to stay out of trouble, then please do what they do or at least be quiet and not be loud. God bless you if you can do so.
Even a temple or church elder or founder must comply with the ways of the new generation or clique running that temple or church. They may be less right but what can the temple elder do even if he has mass support.
The story will be different if he goes beyond mere talk. He must garner the capacity to take over and run the place.
What counts is who are running the place and have the say. That is so and so be it.
Temples, churches and religions are often like that. They are institutions not of God and saints but of men, perhaps mere men who may not necessarily be spiritually inclined enough to be wiser.
Any temple or church of a saint, for instance, is in reality not a temple of that saint but of men running the place. That indeed may be so and so be it.
So it would not come as a surprise if they want to go their own way and not the way of the saint. They will set their own law and that is because it is after all a temple of men. It is not unthinkable though unlikely that they may even change the temple name and the temple saint.
So long as they are duly and properly instituted and constituted, they who rule and manage the place set the law. Others should not take the law into their own hands and upset them.
They the others should go through proper channels and processes if they want them to do differently what they are doing.
But on the surface, all may seem well but there may be more than meet the eye. The so-called others may well be part of them and have the right to play advisory or custodian roles and roles of checks and balance.
Obey the laws of the land (or for that matter an institution). Obey the laws of God. Do not take the law into your own hands. That way you can keep the peace around you and be at peace to do more, be it spiritually or otherwise.
Do be realistic that in a temple of men, the law is not that of the lord saint but of men in charge. Others need to either toe their line or to stay clear if they cannot put their weight to bear. It is as simple as that.
It is not that others should worship those men in charge but that if others want to have their say, they better, if they can, be in charge than stay out of the administration. But one or two might not actually be others but part of the team, albeit a divided team.
God bless. Omitofo.
Be it the laws of the land or the laws of God, they are not for men to enforce but to comply. Do not take the laws into your own hands.
If you do, then there will be more issues brewing for society. There will be less of the desirable peace and more of the very disharmony we don't wish to have. Life cannot go on smoothly and trouble will arise with men over every other issue and at every turn and corner.
To ensure this be not the case, men must not try to police others but let the authority and police do that. This has to be and there cannot be any other way.
In the spiritual world, men must not police the way other men should pray, worship and relate to God and saints. Men must not speak and act for God to chastise fellow men in the name of God and saints.
God and saints can do that. They do not need men to do that. If they do, then they are no saints. God will no longer be God.
Anyway, there is inbuilt by divine design, the law of cause and effect. We reap what we sow. We learn from mistakes. We have freewill and that is the blessing by Heaven. We must use it wisely.
Trying to act as though we can speak for God and saints is not worthwhile. We will end up portraying God in bad light. We end up attributing to God and saints attributes that they should not have, like anger, wrath, jealousy, intolerance, callousness and possessiveness.
We end up deciding for God and saints. We put words in the mouths of God and saints. We end up deputizing for God and saints to lord over other men. We end up taking the laws in our own hands, be these the laws of God or the laws of the land.
We may, for instance end up ensuring an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth instead of offering the left cheek when slapped on the right cheek. Capital and corporal ways of punishment are the ways of men and incorporated into the laws of the land. Even then, this will invariably be moderated by rehabilitation.
With God and saints, there is no punishment of any sorts but love for men who erred. Men may cause hardship and woes to others but they too suffer from their own errors. They do end up in hell, be it hell on earth or in the afterlife.
But there is no damnation or eternal hell. God and saints will give many chances and help even those in hell to better themselves - to rehabilitate and be on the way to heaven and sainthood.
Man punishes but God don't. Man suffers and stands to lose when he errs. But God blesses him if he can learn from his errors and be wiser from the learning.
Lord Bo Tien says that men must obey the laws of the land even if they are spiritual men. Obey both the laws of Man as well as the laws of Heaven.
Jesus said, "Give to Caesar (Man) what is due to Caesar (Man) and to God what is due to God."
The men of old did say that when in "Rome", do what the "Romans" do. The "Romans" may be wrong but what can you do.
If you don't do as they do, you may be persecuted and crucified unless you can run away and stay out of the limelight.
If you want to stay out of trouble, then please do what they do or at least be quiet and not be loud. God bless you if you can do so.
Even a temple or church elder or founder must comply with the ways of the new generation or clique running that temple or church. They may be less right but what can the temple elder do even if he has mass support.
The story will be different if he goes beyond mere talk. He must garner the capacity to take over and run the place.
What counts is who are running the place and have the say. That is so and so be it.
Temples, churches and religions are often like that. They are institutions not of God and saints but of men, perhaps mere men who may not necessarily be spiritually inclined enough to be wiser.
Any temple or church of a saint, for instance, is in reality not a temple of that saint but of men running the place. That indeed may be so and so be it.
So it would not come as a surprise if they want to go their own way and not the way of the saint. They will set their own law and that is because it is after all a temple of men. It is not unthinkable though unlikely that they may even change the temple name and the temple saint.
So long as they are duly and properly instituted and constituted, they who rule and manage the place set the law. Others should not take the law into their own hands and upset them.
They the others should go through proper channels and processes if they want them to do differently what they are doing.
But on the surface, all may seem well but there may be more than meet the eye. The so-called others may well be part of them and have the right to play advisory or custodian roles and roles of checks and balance.
Obey the laws of the land (or for that matter an institution). Obey the laws of God. Do not take the law into your own hands. That way you can keep the peace around you and be at peace to do more, be it spiritually or otherwise.
Do be realistic that in a temple of men, the law is not that of the lord saint but of men in charge. Others need to either toe their line or to stay clear if they cannot put their weight to bear. It is as simple as that.
It is not that others should worship those men in charge but that if others want to have their say, they better, if they can, be in charge than stay out of the administration. But one or two might not actually be others but part of the team, albeit a divided team.
God bless. Omitofo.
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