Cheon Seong Gyeong 2256
What constitutes a wonderful and good husband or wife? The quality of seeing the spouse as absolute in the place of God and in the place of the True Parents. Such a husband and such a wife together constitute the true couple. Children who are born into the family where God is seen as absolute, parents are seen as absolute, and the conjugal relationship is seen as absolute, must themselves be seen as absolute. This is what is referred to in the Unification Church as the ideal of the four-position foundation. (147-231, 1986.9.28)
Richard: What a wonderful image of a true family. Join us in August to study this wonderful Principle of Creation.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1188
As viewed from God’s original ideal of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the firstborn son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)
Obedience and Submission
2. Striving for Absolute Obedience—to Make My Will as God’s Will
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Complete obedience means that a person has no sense of self in front of his Subject Partner. (271:118, August 23, 1995)
Everyone should practice obedience. However, while anyone can obey, not everyone can totally surrender him or herself. Only through total surrender can we fulfill the indemnity condition. (18:188, June 7, 1967)Why does God require of us obedience? It is not to please God, but for us—for our joy. God puts us in the position of His ideal object partners and gives us responsibility to complete the purpose of re-creation. Therefore, we must push away and overcome the elements of the Fall. Because the Fall originated from disobedience, God commands us to have absolute obedience as the necessary condition to restore it. Therefore, in our religious way of life we should not complain. Nor should we make excuses. We must have absolute obedience.
Absolute obedience requires hard work, but the purpose of that hard work is to set conditions that enable us to stand in the perfected position and achieve God’s original goal of creation. Therefore, if we sacrifice and work hard, we can enter the realm of perfection. We must go this way because there is no other way. Hence religion cannot emphasize enough the necessity of hard work, undertaken in faith.
On the path of restoration, complaint is absolutely prohibited. The path of restoration is a tear-stained path of total sacrifice. Nevertheless, we should go joyfully and hopefully. It is the path of re-creation, which is hopeful for us, and we should rejoice in that hope. We are walking in faith, so we must not despair. Why, then, should we go the way of obedience? Sacrifice and hard work are the means by which we give everything and gain everything. (God’s Will and the World, September 11, 1972)
Jesus showed us obedience and complete submission. Obedience is following an order when the circumstances allow, and complete submission is obeying even in impossible circumstances. Jesus taught the dutiful way of obedience and complete submission to the disbelieving people. By this he showed us the way to block Satan’s basic nature and life elements.
The satanic world incessantly tries to exploit and take advantage of human beings and the creation, but Jesus took the opposite direction. Jesus lived a life that Satan could not live—he was meek and humble, he practiced obedience and complete submission, and he lived a life of sacrifice and service. Because he lived with these qualities, Satan had to surrender. Jesus is the representative of all human beings. Likewise, unless you can live as Jesus taught in your daily life, being meek and humble, practicing obedience and complete submission, and ever sacrificing and serving others, know that you still belong to Satan’s tribe. (3:188-89, October 27, 1957)
Throughout the long eons of history, God has been carrying out a providence to set up ways by which people ignorant of the human portion of responsibility could claim that they have fulfilled their portions of responsibility. This has always required absolute obedience. The original portion of responsibility was not fulfilled because Adam and Eve failed to obey God’s commandment. Obeying God’s Word is the first condition to complete the human portion of responsibility. For Adam and Eve, they could have completed their portion of responsibility by absolutely obeying God’s command, “Do not eat of the fruit.”
Therefore, those seeking the way of restoration must absolutely obey God’s words. You should not just obey to some extent. You should say you will obey even at the cost of your life. Step forward on the path of obedience and climb over the summit of the satanic world. That is what Jesus meant when he said, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (139:255-56, January 31, 1986)