He explains the reason why some believe and others do not, and tells them what the basis of faith is. ‘How can you believe,’ He says, ‘when you accept each other’s δοξα,13 teaching, and do not seek the teaching that comes from God alone?’
In order to believe, Christ says we must seek the doctrine that comes from God. ‘He who speaks from himself, seeks his own doctrine (δοξαντηνιδιαν); but he who seeks the doctrine of Him who sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him’ (John 7:18).
The doctrine of life, δοξα, is the basis of faith.
All our actions proceed from faith. Faith proceeds from the δοξαof the light in which we consider life. There may be innumerable deeds and numerous beliefs, but there are only two doctrines of life (δοξα). Christ rejects one of them, and acknowledges the other. The one that Christ rejects is that of the existence of individual life, as belonging to man. It is the doctrine that was then, and is still, maintained by the majority of men, and from which proceeds all the various beliefs of men, and all their deeds.
The other doctrine is the one taught by Christ and the prophets: that our individual life has a purpose only when we fulfill the will of God.
If a man has the δοξαthat his individuality is of more importance than all else, he will consider his individual happiness as the chief and most desirable object in life; and according as he finds that happiness in the purchase of landed property, in fame, in glory, or in the satisfaction of his lusts, his faith will coincide with his views of life, and all his actions will be guided by it.
13 δοξαhas been incorrectly translated by the word ‘honor’; δοξαcomes from δοχεω, and signifies opinion, teaching.
If the δοξαof a man is not such, if he understands the true purpose of life to lie in fulfilling the will of God, as Abraham understood it, and as Christ taught it, his actions will coincide with his faith in what he knows to be the will of God.
This is the reason why those who believe in the happiness of an individual life cannot believe in the doctrine of Christ. All their endeavors to do so will be in vain. In order to believe, they must change their views of life. Until they have done so, their actions will coincide with their creed, and not with their desires or their words.
The desire to believe in the doctrine of Christ, both of those who asked Him for some token, and of the believers of the present time, does not coincide with their lives, nor can it ever do so, however hard they may try to fit them together. They may pray to Christ-God, attend the Holy Communion, do good to mankind, build churches, convert others, and yet, with all this, they cannot really work for Christ; because that can proceed only from faith, which is based on a very different doctrine (δοξα) to the one that they profess. They cannot sacrifice the life of their only son, as Abraham did, who did not doubt for a moment that it was his duty to offer up his son as a sacrifice to God, to the God who alone gave importance to his life. And in the same way, Christ and His disciples could not help giving up their lives to others, because in that alone lay the object and blessing of their lives.
It is from men’s thus misunderstanding the substance of faith that their strange longing arises. They make themselves believe that it would be better to live up to the doctrine of Christ; and all the while they firmly believe in the individual life, and therefore choose to live contrary to Christ’s doctrine.
The foundation of faith is a true comprehension of life, which enables man to distinguish what is important and good in life from what is unimportant and bad. Faith is a correct appreciation of all the manifestations of life. At the present time men, whose faith is grounded on a doctrine of their own, cannot make it agree with the faith that flows out of the doctrine of Christ any more than the disciples could.
And we find this misunderstanding more than once clearly and definitely spoken of in the gospel. In the gospel according to St. Matthew 20:20-28, and in that according to Mark 10:35-45, after saying, that the ‘rich man cannot enter the kingdom of God,’ and after the still more awful saying that ‘he who does not leave all, who does not give up his life for Christ’s sake, shall not be saved,’ Peter asks, ‘What, then, shall we have, who have left all and followed You?’ In the gospel according to Mark we read that James and John (or, according to Matthew, their mother) ask that ‘they should sit, one on His right hand, the other on His left, in His glory.’ They beg Him to confirm their faith by the promise of a reward. Christ answers Peter’s question by a parable (Matt. 20:1-16); and in answer to James He says, ‘You do not know what you ask,’ i.e., ‘you ask for what cannot be. You do not understand my doctrine. My doctrine is the renunciation of individual life, and you ask for individual honor, and individual reward. You may ‘drink of my cup’ or live; but to sit on my right hand, or my left, or to be equal to me, cannot be given to you.’
And then Christ says that it is only in this world that the powerful of the world think much of the glory and power of individual life, and rejoice in it; but you, who are my disciples, ought to know that the true life does not lie in individual happiness, but in ministering to all, in humbling ourselves before all. Man does not live to be ministered to, but to minister to all, and to give up his individual life as a ransom for all. In answer to His disciples’ request, which showed Him how little they understood His doctrine, Christ does not command them to believe, i.e., to change their appreciation of good and evil, which arose from the teaching they had imbibed before Him (He knows that it is impossible); but He explains what the true life is, on which faith is based, and shows that it is a true estimation of good and bad, important and unimportant.
Christ answers Peter’s question, ‘What reward shall we have for having left all, and following You?’ with the parable of the laborers who were hired at different times, and who received the same pay (Matt. 20:1-16). He explains to Peter the error he is in with respect to His doctrine, and that his lack of faith proceeds from his error. Christ says it is only in individual life that reward is important in proportion to the work done.
A belief in the necessity of reward being proportionate to the work itself proceeds from the doctrine of individual life. This belief is based on a hypothesis and on rights, which we imagine that we have; but man has no rights and can never have any rights; he is only a debtor for the happiness given to him, and therefore he has no right to expect anything. Even if he gives up his whole life, he cannot give back what he has received, and therefore the master cannot be unjust. If a man declares that he has a right to his own life, and requires compensation from the Author of all – from Him who entrusted him with life – he only shows that he does not understand the true purpose for which life was given to him.
Men, having obtained happiness, require more. These men stood unoccupied and miserable in the market place, and did not live. The master hired them and gave them the greatest good in life: labor. They accepted the master’s gracious gift, and then grew dissatisfied. They were dissatisfied because they had no clear consciousness of their state. They came to their work with the false idea that they had a right to their own lives and to their own work, and that, therefore, their work was to be rewarded. They did not understand that work itself was the greatest good given to them, in return for which they were to do good to others, but that they could claim no reward. And men cannot have a just and true faith as long as they possess the same erroneous idea of life as these laborers had.
Christ answers the direct demand of His disciples to confirm, to increase, their faith by the parable of the master and the laborers, and explains still more clearly the groundwork of the faith he taught them.
Luke 17:3-10: The precept given by Christ to forgive our brother not only once, but seventy times seven, fills the disciples with awe at the difficulty that they would experience in putting such a precept into practice, and they say, ‘Yes but… to fulfill it we must believe. Increase, and confirm our faith.’ As they had asked before, ‘What shall we have for it?’ so do
