Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 180
THE FAREWELL DISCOURSE
1. Said the Master: "You will remember when I sent you forth without purse or wallet... No longer can you depend upon the good will of the multitudes. Henceforth, he who has a purse, let him take it with him. When you go out into the world to proclaim this gospel, make such provision for your support as seems best ...My friends, I am to be with you only a little longer... In just a short time I am going to leave you, you will see me no more on earth, but you shall see me in the age to come when you ascend to the kingdom which my Father has given to me."
2. You well know the commandment which directs that you love one another; that you love your neighbor even as yourself... I would have you perform still greater acts of love in the kingdom of the believing brotherhood. And so I give you this new commandment: That you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you thus love one another...greater love can no man have than this: that he will lay down his life for his friends.
3. "You have not merely chosen me, but I have also chosen you, and I have ordained you to go forth into the world to yield the fruit of loving service to your fellows even as I have lived among you and revealed the Father to you. The Father and I will both work with you, and you shall experience the divine fullness of joy if you will only obey my command to love one another, even as I have loved you."
4. Keep in mind: It is loyalty, not sacrifice, that Jesus demands. The consciousness of sacrifice implies the absence of what wholehearted affection which would have made such a loving service a supreme joy. The idea of duty signifies that you are servant‑minded and hence are missing the mighty thrill of doing your service as a friend and for a friend.
5. Then Jesus stood up again and continued teaching his apostles: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, and you are the branches. And the Father requires of me only that you shall bear much fruit ...As the branch cannot bear fruit except it abides in the vine, so neither can you yield the fruits of loving service except you abide in me. Remember: I am the real vine, and you are the living branches. He who lives in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit of the spirit and experience the supreme joy of yielding this spiritual harvest...
6. If you abide in me and my words live in you, you will be able to commune freely with me, and then can my living spirit so infuse you that you may ask whatsoever my spirit wills and do all this with the assurance that the Father will grant us our petition.
7. But great sorrow later attended the misinterpretation of the Master's inferences regarding prayer. There would have been little difficulty about these teachings if his exact words had been remembered and subsequently truthfully recorded...For centuries honest souls have continued to wreck their faith against this stumbling block. How long will it take the world of believers to understand that prayer is not a process of getting your way but rather a program of taking God's way, an experience of learning how to recognize and execute the Father's will?
8. the branch exists only for, and can do nothing except, fruit bearing the fruits of the spirit: to love man as he himself has been loved by God... Jesus had great difficulty in leading even his apostles to recognize that prayer is a function of spirit‑born believers in the spirit‑dominated kingdom.
9. "When I have left you, be not discouraged by the enmity of the world... You are in this world, but your lives are not to be worldlike. I have chosen you out of the world to represent the spirit of another world even to this world from which you have been chosen...If they dare to persecute me, they will also persecute you.
10. "But I will not leave you alone in the world. Very soon, after I have gone, I will send you a spirit helper. You shall have with you one who will take my place among you, one who will continue to teach you the way of truth, who will even comfort you.
"Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; continue to believe also in me. Even though I must leave you, I will not be far from you. I have already told you that in my Father's universe there are many tarrying‑places ...I am going to return to these worlds of light, stations in the Father's heaven to which you shall some time ascend.
11. "Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man goes to the Father except through me. All who find the Father, first find me” ...But this teaching was too deep for many of the apostles ...”Again do I declare: He who has seen me has seen the. Father...Believe me when I say that the Father is in me, and that I am in the Father.
12. "When I have gone to the Father... and after I have received the final sovereignty of my own domain... I will pour out the Spirit of Truth upon all flesh... You thus perceive that I am not going to leave you without help and guidance... Do you not discern that it is better for me to go away; that I leave you in the flesh so that I may the better and the more fully be with you in the spirit?
13.” I shall be one with your personal experience in the spirit kingdom...As my Father has given me of his spirit, so will I give you of my spirit. And this Spirit of Truth which I will bestow upon you shall guide and comfort you and shall eventually lead you into all truth... In a very short time I am going to send you my spirit, just like me except for this material body. This new teacher is the Spirit of Truth who will live with each one of you, in your hearts, and so will all the children of light be made one and be drawn toward one another.”
14. Judas Alpheus did not fully understand what the Master said, but he grasped the promise of the new teacher, and from the expression on Andrew's face, he perceived that his question had been satisfactorily answered.
15. The new helper which Jesus promised to send into the hearts of believers, to pour out upon all flesh, is the Spirit of Truth...The new teacher is the conviction of truth...And this new teacher is the spirit of living and growing truth, expanding, unfolding, and adaptative truth.
16. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct ...Static truth is dead truth, and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind.
17. Intelligence grows out of a material existence which is illuminated by the presence of the cosmic mind. Wisdom comprises the consciousness of knowledge elevated to new levels of meaning... Truth is a spiritual reality value experienced only by spirit‑endowed beings... the spiritually unprogressive soul is all the while dragging the living truth down to the dead levels of wisdom and to the domain of mere exalted knowledge.
18. An unspiritual interpretation of the golden rule might result in untold unhappiness and no end of sorrow...The true cosmic meaning of this rule of universal relationship is revealed only in its spiritual realization... And when such spirit‑led mortals realize the true meaning of this golden rule, they are filled to overflowing with the assurance of citizenship in a friendly universe, and their ideals of spirit reality are satisfied only when they love their fellows as Jesus loved us all, and that is the reality of the realization of the love of God.
19. Love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living readaptative interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of the Spirit of Truth. Love must thereby grasp the ever‑changing and enlarging concepts of the highest cosmic good of the individual who is loved.
20. And so must we clearly recognize that neither the golden rule nor the teaching of nonresistance can ever be properly understood as dogmas or precepts. They can only be comprehended by living them, by realizing their meanings in the living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth, who directs the loving contact of one human being with another.
2l. The old religion taught self‑sacrifice; the new religion teaches only self-forgetfulness, enhanced self‑realization in conjoined social service and universe comprehension. The old religion was motivated by fear‑consciousness; the new gospel of the kingdom is dominated by truth‑conviction ...Neither tradition nor a ceremonial system of formal worship can atone for the lack of genuine compassion for one's fellows.
22. “I warn you the hour draws near when they who kill you will think they are doing a service to God... I have even warned you that a man's foes may be those of his own household. Although this gospel of the kingdom never fails to bring great peace to the soul of the individual believer, it will not bring peace on earth until man is willing to believe my teaching wholeheartedly and to establish the practice of doing the Father's will as the chief purpose in living the mortal life.
23. “It is really profitable for you that I go away. If I go not away, the new teacher cannot come into your hearts. I must be divested of this mortal body and be restored to my place on high before I can send this spirit teacher to live in your souls and lead your spirits into the truth... "I have yet much to say to you, but you cannot stand any more just now. Albeit, when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he shall eventually guide you into all truth as you pass through the many abodes in my Father's universe ...he will even show you things to come;
24. “I have plainly told you that the Son of Man must die, but that he will rise again ...And all the worlds will be blessed in this same revelation of life in effecting the overthrow of death. Hitherto have you made all your requests in my Father's name. After you see me again, you may also ask in my name, and I will hear you.
25. “Mortal man cannot see the spirit Father; therefore have I come into the world to show the Father to your creature eyes. But when you have become perfected in spirit growth, you shall then see the Father himself."
Discussion Questions
1. How does the new commandment of love differ from the old one?
2. When does service not become a duty or a sacrifice?
3. How does Jesus’ statement, “No man goes to the Father except through me? Include people in all of the religions of the world?
4. Since the conviction of truth is a universal experience, is this the Spirit of Truth ministering to all people?
5. How can we illustrate living truth from dead truth?
6. How does truth, which is a spiritual reality, transcend wisdom and knowledge?
7. If love must always be interpreted by the Spirit of Truth, is loving others more of a spirit guided will decision than an emotional experience?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship