Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

“ Seeds on the stony ground is when people at first gladly accept the teaching, but reject it when resentments and persecutions come because of the teaching. Seeds in the grass is when people understood the meaning of the kingdom of God, but their worldly cares and greed for riches suppress the meaning of the teaching in them. ”

“ To kill myself in my body,” - thought Jesus, - “I can't, because the spirit dwells in the body, according to the will of God. To kill myself means to go against the will of God.” - And, having thought about it, Jesus said to himself: “It looks like I can’t live by the spirit alone, because the spirit lives in the body. ”

“ And just as a slave doesn’t always live in the house of the master but the son of the master does, so as a person, when he lives by the spirit, connects with the Father and lives forever. Verily I say unto you, he who shall follow my word, he will never see death.” And then the Jews said to him: "Now we learned that the demon is within you. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, but you say that who keeps your word, wont’s ever see death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, but who shall keep your Word, he will not die. ”

“ There is one temple of God, it is the hearts of the people when they love each other.” And they asked him: “When will be such a temple?” And Jesus said: “It will not be soon. For long time yet people will deceive others using my teaching, and because of that there would be wars and tribulations. And there will be great crime, and there will be lack of love. But when all people will understand the true teaching, there will be the end of evil and temptations.” ”

“ I'm teaching the truth to everyone who wants to learn the truth. You consider yourself being righteous and think that you know the truth, and therefore there is nothing else you can be taught. So, it is only possible to teach the infidels. And how will they learn the truth, if we do not get together with them? Then the Pharisees, not knowing what to answer, began to rebuke the disciples of Jesus for eating bread with unwashed hands. ”

“ People will hate you for what you will say, and will attack you, and will chase you out from place to place, but don’t lose heart. And when they will drive you away from one village, you go to another, and when from another, go to the third one. They will drive you out like the wolves chase sheep, but you don’t be intimidated. And they will take you to courts, and beat you, and will bring you to their superiors so that you would defend yourselves in front of them. ”

“ Having heard that Greeks wanted to become his disciples, Jesus got confused at first. He knew that if he won’t make difference between Jews and Gentiles, then Jews will get angry at him. But he immediately came to his senses and said: “There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles; one and the same son of man is in all people. Even if I die because of this, but it's time to recognize the human son as common spirit of God in all people. Wheat grain only brings fruit when it dies itself. ”

“ Understand what these words of the prophet mean: ‘a living temple is a world of all people, when they love each other.’ You need to serve God not in a temple, but by life in the spirit and good deeds. ”

“ Know that no one should call himself a teacher. These self-proclaimed Orthodox teachers think they can lead to God by the superficial cremations, oaths, and they don't see that the external means nothing, that everything valuable is in human soul. They do the easiest, outer, but what is necessary and difficult - love, mercy, truth – they leave out. They only want to be superficially in law, and to bring others to the law superficially. ”

“ It is only the damn people who got to believe in him. And people are ignorant about the law. And everybody has returned back to their homes. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and stayed there with his disciples, and in the morning came again into the temple, and again a lot of people came to listen to him. And he taught them again. He said: “My teaching is the light of the world. Who will adopt it, he will not walk in darkness, but will clearly see what's good and what's bad. I teach what my Father spirit, who sent me, teaches everyone.” ”

“ It’s impossible to live only by the spirit, yet to live by the body, as worldly people live now, is bad, and if continue to live this way, then everybody will live apart, and the kingdom of God will never come. ”

“ In the same way, every person needs to understand that everything he considers to be his own: family, and property, and his life itself, today-tomorrow will be taken away from him. And that the only thing that is his own and can never be taken away from him is the life of his spirit, and so he can only able and must care about the life of his spirit. ”

“ The woman realized what he was talking about the divine, and says: “Yes, but I am Samaritan and you're Jewish, and therefore you cannot teach me. Our people pray on this mountain, and you, the Jews, say that the house of God is only in Jerusalem. And Jesus said: “That was before, but now the time has come when people will pray the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but everyone will honor the heavenly Father not at either location, but in spirit and truth. God is spirit, and He must be honored in spirit and in truth.” ”

“ And the workers came to the master and said, ‘Have you not planted bad seeds? You have a lot of bad grass in your field. Send us there, we'll weed them off.’ And the master says: ‘Don’t need to, because if you will start to weed the grass off, you will trample the wheat. Let them grow together. When harvest will come, then I will order the reapers to harvest the wheat, and to throw the bad grass away. The same way, God does not allow people to meddle with the lives of other people, neither does has he meddle himself. Everyone can come to God only by himself, by his own efforts. ”

“ Remember that even small efforts toward the kingdom of God bring great fruits: just like from a small seed a tall tree grows. Every man is able by his own efforts to enter into the kingdom of God, because the kingdom of God is within us. ”

“ The law, in brief, is to love God to love neighbor as yourself. And he fulfills this law who does to others as he wants others to do to him. And therefore whosoever hears these words of mine and fulfills them, he does the same thing as does a man who builds a house on the rock: this man is afraid of neither rain nor rivers nor storms, because his house is built on stone. ”

“ My kingdom is not the earthly one.” Then Pilate said: “Still, do you consider yourself a king?” Jesus said: “I teach people the truth of the heavenly kingdom. And who lives the truth, he is the king.” Pilate said: “The truth? What is the truth?” And Pilate turned back to Jesus and went out again to the Jews and said to them: “In my opinion, this man has done nothing wrong and there is nothing to execute him for.” But the chief priests insisted and said that he is doing a lot of evil and rebels the people and has rebelled the entire Judea. ”

“ Temptations ruin people by having lured them, under the guise of kindness and pleasantness, into the most harmful acts. Once a person yields to a temptation, he ruins both his body and the soul. And therefore, it is better to suffer in body than to fall into temptation. ”

“ You still don’t understand what spirit you are of. I teach not how to ruin, but how to save people. How is it possible to desire evil to a closed one? The same spirit of God lives in every person, the same as in you, and therefore you should not desire evil to happen to that very same which in yourselves. Another time scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman taken in adultery, put her in front of him and said, “Teacher, this woman was taken in adultery, and according to the Law of Moses someone like her should be stoned. ”

“ If one has to live with one wife until death, regardless what kind of person she might be, then it is better not to marry at all.” And Jesus told them: “You could not marry; but only if someone wants to live without his wife, then he has to be completely clean and not to think about women. ”

“ The Pharisees saw that Jesus' disciples plucked the ears of wheat on Saturday, stopped his disciples, and said to them: “You are not supposed to do that on Saturday. On Saturday you are not allowed to work, but you crush the wheat ears. It is stated in the law that one should be executed to death who works on Saturday.” Jesus heard that and said: “A prophet said that God wants love, not sacrifice. If you would understand these words, you would not accuse my disciples. People are more important than Saturday.” ”

“ What does this parable mean?
39 After that, Christ came to Jerusalem again, and in the temple he began to speak to people about wrong life of the Pharisees. He said: “Beware of the teaching of scribes, the self-proclaimed teachers. Beware of them, because they took place of the true teachers, prophets. They self-willingly took the power to preach the will of God to people. They only talk, but do not do what they say. They want to be teachers, and for that they try to show off: dress, glorify themselves, yet they don’t do anything. ”