Memra 1

Memra 1 Which is a discourse that distinguishes the commandments: and shows that concerning each matter it is said, "Commandment by commandment in its place": and for what reason and to what end did our Lord Jesus Christ say, "Look at the commandments, the great and the small": and how one may know perfect from defective: that in the great commandments there is perfection, and in the small ones there is defect. Our brothers and our fathers, our brothers and our sisters in Christ: it is fitting for us that we seek to hear the words of our Lord one by one: as the Apostle said, "Seek to hear today and tomorrow and forever." And again he said, "Seek from yourselves all the days: until the day that is called today: that is, until the end: that you may be examined in them and examine your brothers." And again he said, "That you may be discerning and see which is the will of God, received and perfect." And again he said, "That you may be discerning and know these: which are holy, humble, and fitting, and to them stop." And again he said, "When two or three books are read and the rest: let the one who distinguishes distinguish: that is, the one who participates in the Spirit." And again he said, "The fruits of the Spirit in their entirety: look: goodness and humility: and patience and gentleness of spirit: and serenity and tranquility: and joy and peace with everyone: and love towards everyone.

It is necessary for us, therefore, to seek the truth: that truth which sets free, as the Lord said: that is, that a man humble himself and cast away his thoughts, so that these are the eyes of God and that is his will: and for what reason does he thus reveal his truth. For there is a man who humbles himself a little, not before everyone, and they do not cast away their thoughts; because of this they do not know the truth as it is. And there is one who casts away his thoughts, and does not humble himself from everything that is on earth; because of this they do not know. For pride is the opposite of that truth which is without knowledge, and arrogance is the opposite of that humility which is without perception. For a man does not know the will of God from himself, but only if he is joined with him in spirit. That is: but only if a man becomes meek and humble of all men, as it is said: that when one looks and one begins, but only with a meek and humble spirit that keeps my word. Because of this, he does not know how to interpret scripture and distinguish the commandments, but only a man who is joined in spirit with God. Because all of you run after the service of the body, and not after that of the spirit, and there is none among you who denies himself and takes up the cross while humbling himself: that is, one who has no support for his head on the earth. But the worthy one among you does righteous deeds from his own effort: these which the people of the world ought to have done, and they did them and their brothers in them.

and it is necessary for him to leave everything and go in the humility of the Lord and in his renunciation: for these are the great commandments, those which show a sign. But they stand by the small commandments, those which are vegetables and milk, and not by the great ones, which are the true food. For this reason they do not know how to distinguish the great commandments from the small ones, nor the service of the upper from the service of the lower, nor the food which is vegetables for the sick, nor the milk for infants, nor that a sign of release was granted to one person alone and was not granted to another. Thus also a person does not receive the Paraclete through those commandments, nor does a person become tranquil like a sick person through those, nor does a person grow like an infant through those, nor through those signs which are commanded for every person, that a person might be in them blessed of the Father through the offering of the Spirit. For the gift of the Paraclete is one thing, and the blessing of the offering is another, small. And they do not know the commandments which are commanded for each person individually, and another cannot be helped by them, nor those signs by which no person lives when the sign is withheld, but his distress would be pleasant in them, and it is not fitting that he offer a sign, neither to the perfect nor to the sick.

and they do not know how one man differs from another in the spirit of the Paraclete; nor how a sick man is comforted by a sick man with a meal of greens; nor how a child is more beautiful than another child in milk; nor how a blessed one differs from a blessed one in these commandments which are spoken to everyone; nor how one man serves his lord in a bodily manner, and another serves his lord in a spiritual manner; nor how one man’s hardship is more joyful than his companion’s in the judgment of the guilt that was given to them, as if they themselves willed in the hardness of their heart and fell from perfection and from the humility that is beneath perfection. Adam our father fell from the rank of perfection and remained in the rank of humility: for what is difficult for one man to do, he does not do as he wishes that others would do to him. Thus it does to the sons of men who encounter it. Sin, then, also fell from this rank: for what is difficult, they do to one another. For everything that you would not wish your companion to do to you, you do to him. And as you wish that everyone would do to you, you do not do to everyone. One man, therefore, wishes this, and everyone who is a man does good to you. Hence, from this, that which does not do good to everyone, and to those who have done evil to you, you are separated from humility.

a sick man then, a sick man and every man: that a man does evil to his fellow; also that one who does evil to him: see then whether he who does evil to a man, or to him who does evil to his fellow: fall upon him from sickness. For what is above them, a sick man does to the sons of men. And what they wish that the sons of men do to them, they do not wish to do to them. But concerning sickness, in place of which you ought to interpret: now then, distinguish the commandments: how they do not know how many degrees there are in each one of these foods and services; nor how high the upper degree; nor how deep the lower degree; nor have they understood that many kinds of regions are in the house of the Father, as the Lord said. Now then, begin to interpret something of what he said from above, commandment by commandment in its place, as the Lord shows you. For the commandments that are said to each man are these kinds: to Abraham alone God said: Sacrifice to me a son whom you love, good. And another cannot do this commandment today, lest he die. But if a man takes the type of this commandment, that he love God more than his son, and not consider his son as the teaching of God.

Again, to Joshua, the Lord said: "Take a harlot as a wife," and no man is able to be occupied with this daily commandment, and he takes a Gentile woman every day in the end, and if it is good that he takes, when she goes up from the market, then he takes her. But to Joshua, while he was standing in the market, the Lord forbade him to take her, because he was to show in her to the sons of Israel who are harlots. For what reason did they come to show their judgment upon him who took a harlot? Judge him, and condemn him to death. For if you judge me, you judge me because I took a harlot by the word of the Lord, how much more does the Lord condemn you to death, because you have fornicated with a man and fornicated with idols and abandoned the commandments of the Lord your God. The forgiveness of one man is that he is forgiven; that one is forgiven for the sake of the pagan alone, without works, and it is not forgiven thus to another without works, except if he repents. Other commandments in another place show sin; but how this one was forgiven, if you wish to understand: a king came to his door without being perceived and approached him with a request and forgave him. A ruler is master of his own, and to you he said: "Again, forgive a man for yourself." Wealth, then, of his mercy, show in that one man who is hard-hearted toward the penitents who keep the commandments in their repentance, how many are his mercies, that without works he had mercy and forgave. End of the First Memra on the Distinction of the Commandments.