Chapter 16: Caring for Your Neighbor. The one who is intimate with God never holds a grudge against those who have sinned against him; rather, he forgives them. He prays, "Forgive us because we also forgive others." Matthew 6:12. For God commands us to covet nothing and to hate no one. All men are the creation of the same God. Jesus said that the ones who know him are to be perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48.
For it is Jesus himself who says, "Come, children, hear from me the fear of the Lord." Psalms 34:11. He does not want the one who is intimate with God to stand in need of help from the angels. Rather, Jesus wants him to receive it directly from himself, having become worthy of this. This kind of man does not merely request what he needs from the Lord; he asks for it boldly. When he sees his brothers in need, the one who knows God intimately will not ask for wealth to share with them.
Instead, he will pray that they receive only what they need. This way, the man of God gives his prayer to those in need, and by his prayer, their needs are supplied without his knowledge and without vanity on his part. God often sends poverty, disease, and other similar trials on people as discipline for their past conduct and as instructions for their future conduct. Still, the one who is intimate with God can ask God to relieve others from these trials.
He brings kindness to others, having become the instrument of God's goodness. It is said that the Apostle Matthew used to constantly preach, "If a Christian's neighbor sins, the Christian himself has sinned." For if he had conducted himself, as the Word says, his neighbor would have been filled with such reverence for the Christian life that he would not sin any longer. So what shall we ask about the one who is intimate with God? The Apostle asks, "Don't you know that you are the temple of God?" 1 Corinthians 3:16.
So the one who is intimate with God partakes of divinity. 2 Peter 1:4. He is already holy. He carries God in his body, and God carries him. The Scripture shows that sinning is foreign to him, saying, "Do not look on a strange woman with lust." Matthew 5:28. This plainly demonstrates that sin is foreign and contrary to the nature of the temple of God. The temple is both great and small. It's as great as the whole church, and it's as small as the individual man who preserves the seed of Abraham.
Therefore, he who has God dwelling in him won't desire anything else. By putting away all hindrances and distractions, he opens the heavens through knowledge. He passes through the spiritual entities, past all rule and authority, and touches the highest thrones themselves. Like mixing a serpent with a dove. Matthew 10:16. The one who is intimate with God combines faith with hope. He lives perfectly with a good conscience. He does this to gain the future for which he has hoped.
He is aware of the blessing he has been given, having become worthy to receive it. He has moved from slavery to adoption as a result of knowing God, or I should say, because he is known by God. To attain this end, he has put forth energies corresponding to the worth of grace. For works follow knowledge, just as the shadow follows the body. He is not agitated by anything that happens, and he doesn't question the things that take place by divine arrangement for the good. Furthermore, he is not reluctant to die.
For he has had a good conscience and is prepared to be seen by the powers. Being cleansed from all the stains of the soul, he is certain that it will be better with him after his departure from this life. So he never prefers pleasure and profit to the divine arrangement. He trains himself by the commandments so he will please the Lord in all things. He trains so he will be blameless before the world, since all things depend on the one sovereign God.
It is written that the Son of God came to his own, and his own did not receive him. So in the use of worldly things, he gives thanks and he praises the creation. He also is praised for using them correctly. Through knowing God intimately, he has a storehouse of food for contemplation. Because he has nobly embraced the greatness of divine knowledge, he advances to the holy reward of being carried from this life. He has heard the Psalm which says, "Encircle Zion and surround it, count its towers." Psalms 48:12.
This implies, I believe, that those who have sublimely embraced the Word and become like lofty towers will stand firmly in faith and knowledge.