1 Corinthians 8
1Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3But whoever loves God is known by God.a
Nehemiah 2
1In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, 2so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
Richard: We should make effort to appreciate God’s guidance and blessing, and not complain.
Let Us Not Become a Betrayer of God’s Will
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
October 20, 1957
Chung Pa Dong Church
Seoul, Korea
Matthew 23: 29-39
The title of the speech I would like to reflect upon with you in this hour is “Let Us Not Become a Betrayer of God’s Will.”
Today we are living in an environment in which it is extremely difficult to establish laws based upon trust and righteousness. It is also hard to make a friend with whom one can live, enjoying a friendship not only throughout life, but also throughout eternity.
You must know well that we are faced with a reality in which it is difficult to have a spouse, parents, brothers or sisters with whom we can live together forever. Even now we humans are longing in our hearts to live with God in an amazing and broad realm of ideals in which our mind and our living environment would never change.
Originally, humans were to live in an environment in which they could eternally trust, depend on, love and show off everything good to one another. However, because they lost this environment, they have been destined to restore it. This did not become history by coincidence. There are certain stories we do not know. Throughout history, there were conditions through which our ancestors violated the great principles of absolute trust and righteousness. There were other conditions of darkness as well of which we are not aware. We should understand that, until now, not only our flesh and blood, but also our environment has been oppressed.
What then should we do when faced with such an environment today? Centered on the original ideals human beings were to possess, by becoming unchanging individuals of trust and righteousness, we should be able to manifest the eternal ideals, trust and righteousness as our own. By doing so, transcending our own life course, we should be able to receive a day when we can eternally rejoice. Today countless people are longing to see the arrival of such a day.
What state then are we in now? We are not yet liberated from the fallen lineage. We were not emancipated from the boundary of sin. Consequently, we are responsible for becoming free of it. We should reflect upon our wrongful way of life. We should block all acts that are unprincipled. You should understand that you are destined to restore the environment and ideals we can enjoy.
We are in that position because of the fall. What does the fall mean? It means that people could not be an unchanging center, a center that has fulfilled the ideals for the purpose of faith. We cannot be a center for the creation. The fall caused a change and a separation in the relationship between God and man. That relationship should never have changed nor should there have been separation, no matter what.
The reason humankind came to grieve is that they deliberately betrayed the principles established by Heaven. They did not believe in, but violated the will that should have been realized on earth as the center of the principle of creation. Because they did not do this, they came to grief.