Are we all Gentiles?

Do not think that you are safe,

your beasts can still drag you down!

In the Sermon on the Mount, there is a definition of Gentiles: "Therefore don't be anxious, saying, 'What will we eat?', 'What will we drink?' or, 'With what will we be clothed?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”

 A Gentile (a pagan or a heathen) denotes here to a person whose leading principle in life lies on satisfying all natural human needs. In other words – almost all people should be defined as Gentiles!

“What is the opposite of a Gentile?” you might ask. The Christians could point themselves or members of other religions.

The Sermon seems to denote to such a person who has sought and really found the Kingdom of God, and who needs no addition to his inner being any more – for he has the life in himself.

Christians see their belief in terms of baptism or believing in teachings of Jesus or in his role as a savior.

On the basis of the gospels or St. Paul (and many others), we could say that only the kind of human being can fulfil the real features of a Christian who has “born from above” or “has put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Thereby he is his inner being united in God the Father (just as Jesus himself probably was).

Master Eckhart describes a real Christian as a person whose inner stability nothing in the world can disturb – “he can even give up his life as easily as an egg.”

Even the firmest belief – in forms of feelings and thoughts – is restricted to a human mind (psyche) which cannot “search the deep things of God”, for a mind is totally conditioned by temporal phenomena.

According to Paul, it is only the spirit (in the person’s innermost being)  that is able to search the Spirit. That is why there, must occur a fundamental transformation in the consciousness of the human being in order that he could become aware of the innermost (spiritual) principles of life.

In religious circles, people have always discussed about the necessity of cleaning both body and mind so that senses, feelings and thoughts do not interfere or prevent the liberation of mind out of its customary actions (earthly affairs).

Here the issue is not of becoming spiritually righteous by one’s own efforts but merely of “forgetting oneself and carrying one’s own cross” up to the point where the passing “through the narrow gate” is allowed after “a long districted way.”

It is no contrast between human will and divine grace for both have their role and time. God is ready as soon as a person becomes free of his beasts and ready for Him.