The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1973
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The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1973 |
Sun
Myung Moon, Hak Ja Han, and Hyung Jin Moon May 5, 2011
Since the fall of man, God's work has been the restoration of original goodness. God wants to destroy the world of evil and recreate the world of goodness. We have lost our health. We have become sick people. The salvation of God is, therefore, the restoration of man to a healthy state once again.
God sowed the seed of goodness, but before He could gather its fruit, Satan invaded with his evil seed and harvested his evil fruit. For this reason, God must sow the seed of goodness once again. To do this job God needs certain tools. The religions of the world have served as these tools for God. Throughout history, good religions have taught God's way of life, centered upon sacrificial love and duty. Thus Christianity may be considered the most advanced and progressive religion because it teaches this sacrificial love and duty in supreme form.
Jesus came as a savior, but his teaching was, "... the Son of man came not to be served but to serve..." (Matt 20:28) Jesus taught that the greatest love in this universe is to give one's life for his enemy. The teaching of the Bible is contrary to the common rule of our worldly society. It is exactly the opposite of the way of this self-centered world. The Bible teaches complete giving and total sacrifice. "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt 10:39) It seems almost foolish to think seriously about living this way in man's evil society. But once you know God's principle, you discover that there is actually no wisdom greater than this.
Jesus Christ's teachings hit the very core of this fundamental truth. The more you give the more you receive. God rewards total giving with total love, and total sacrifice with total life. Giving creates room for God's love to enter; the more room and the greater the vacuum created by your giving, the faster you will be filled by the flow of God's love.
To be treated well you must first treat others well. You reap as you sow. Sow evil to reap evil; sow goodness to reap goodness. Your concern should be how to give, and how to give well. As for the return to you, you must trust in God. He will take care of it.
Let us take an illustration of a good man and a bad man. Let us say there is one man who has ten friends. Day in and day out this man is unselfishly serving his ten friends. People cannot help but love this man. He can become the very best friend to ten people. Then his influence will spread to the relatives and friends of those first ten people. By giving and serving unselfishly this man becomes prosperous. He is a center of harmony and unity because he lives God's principle. Unselfishness brings prosperity. Here is a good man.
But suppose, on the contrary, this man said to his friends, "You ten, bring everything to me; you are here to serve me." Before he spoke this way to his friends three times, everyone would end all connection with him. They would want to have nothing at all to do with him. So he would be left all alone. Isn't that true, even in our society?
It is universally true. A self-centered doctrine, a self-centered philosophy, a self-centered way of life will fling you head over heels down the tragic road of self-destruction. But if you live your life in service to others, you will find prosperity. It may seem that such a route would lead you to ruin, but it will not. The only reason it may not always bring prosperity to you is because you do not give to the very end. In the middle you suddenly become skeptical. You change your heart or pity yourself and thus shrink from God's law of total giving. The good result never materializes. Total giving is the way of prosperity because it is the way of God.