Mathew Chapter 7 continues….3

In the verses 15 to 20 Jesus reminded us about false prophets. Here in theses verses, 21 to 23, also he presents the same truth in a different way.  We don’t misunderstand that false prophets means some people with different doctrines. They are the people with same doctrine with different intentions. Jesus knew it very well from the beginning itself, from that desert. These people give primary importance for material side of life and secondary for spiritual, means spirituality is for material life and its prosperity and material is not for spiritual life. All their spiritual activities are to flourish their material side of life. Otherwise, all their activities are to flourish ‘Kingdom of Matter’ or ‘Kingdom of Material’.

When we look back to the human history we can see one truth that, whatever development human effort has achieved that has never taken him to a point of satiation. The more material development he achieved the more was the greed he maintained for it.  Why? We needn’t carry out a research for the answer. By material development satiation or joy is not possible, that is the fact. The satiation or joy is not a material fact. Means it cannot be achieved by the development of ‘Kingdom of Matter’ or ‘Kingdom of Material’ but by the development of some other Kingdom which is not ‘Matter’ or which is not the matter of Material and which satiation or joy belongs to. Means a Kingdom independent of matter exists where plenitude and prosperity is a non-material affair, where primary consideration is for non material side and secondary for material side of life. This Kingdom is known as ‘Kingdom of heaven’ in this Book, Mathew. Here the material facts do not limit or control the emotional realm which comprises joy, love, compassion etc. Actually this emotional Kingdom is heavenly one, material side of life is controlled or limited by this emotional Kingdom. Without material and material existence, experiencing the ultimate joy for ever is known as salvation. Here in this Kingdom people practice the life of salvation and life for salvation. A man who is in Kingdom of Matter always works for the prosperity and plenitude in terms of material wealth. Means he finds values in processed materials and structures. But the man who belongs to Kingdom of heaven sees material values as the essential for material existence. And he doesn’t find any meaning in hoarding these values, as it in excess will not make life in excess or eternal. So the matter of Kingdom of heaven is not building up material world but building up a non-material world means a realm of material detachment. 

As we see, the Kingdom of heaven can also be defined as an emotional realm where love, compassion and other positive emotions prevail and thereby relations among people become genuine and fast independent of material aspects.  A man in this Kingdom is rich when his emotional relations - means relation based on unconditional love, compassion etc – are widely spread. He is rich when he has love and compassion towards everyone, without self-interest, without vested interests. So the man who inherit Kingdom of Material works for material wealth whether he a believer or not, but one who inherit Kingdom of Heaven works for these kinds of emotional wealth as mentioned above. That’s why Jesus said indicating false ones as follows in verses 21 to 23.

21  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Many are believers but what the motivation behind the belief? These believers pray lengthy prayers and preach lengthy sermons and there is no shortage of miracles. But there is shortage of something. That is the ‘Will Of God’. For, all these people perform everything according to their will, giving importance for their life, self-interested, they are self-centered, and so they belong to Kingdom of Material. On the other hand, some believers perform not much big things. They love people and make relations for nothing. They remind other people the need to love one another. They even travel simply to make such loving relations and to make awareness in people about this loving Doctrine. Often, their lives are like that of nomads. They are not concern about miracles and lengthy blabla sermons full of weighty words but the words they deliver are full of love and compassion, free of cost. An outside ‘Will’, divine love, always motivates them. This ‘Will’ outside them is the ‘Will Of God’ that prevails in non-material Kingdom or in Kingdom of Heaven, because it has no material interest.  So only these kinds of people enter there. Others are workers like any other workers working for their material existence. To that extend we can call them spiritual labors, beyond that nothing else. They  spoil not only themselves but  those who follow them.