The Ten Commandments

God gave the Ten Commandments to mankind through His servant, Moses. The people of Israel was chosen to bring salvation to mankind by an exemplary life, in which the law of God is lived. Since the Israelites became entangled more and more in their causes despite the help and guidance of the commandments, the Son of God incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth. In Him, the Father came closer to us again, the God of love, kindness, forgiveness and grace, because He showed the way that leads back to the eternal home through self-recognition and clearing up one’s sins, by way of the actualization and fulfilment of the laws of God. Jesus of Nazareth lived and taught this path. It is summarized in the Sermon on the Mount, which contains instructions for its concrete actualization in everyday life. This offer was and is meant for all people who want to live in a Christian way.

Christ now speaks to us again, through the prophetic word. He deepened and deepens the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount in countless revelations and through the activities of His teaching prophetess and spiritual messenger. And so, the Spirit of God helps us in the application of His teachings; He shows us the causes and spiritual correlations and leads us to answers, to ways and solutions in the most varying situations of life. The Spirit of God thus brings His eternal laws into our everyday life, so that we may gain experience on how we can live and think “in a lawful way”, that is, in the Spirit of God.
And this depends on the fact that we put into practice in our life what we recognize. If we do what Jesus taught – and Jesus spoke of doing! – then we will create a mighty potential of positive, that is, divine, energy and also gain the ability to feel and understand our fellow man and, not lastly, the tolerance to leave our neighbour his free will.

This small book, which is based on the texts of three radio programmes of “The Small Roundtable in Universal Life”, contains some important explanations on the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments are excerpts from the absolute, the perfect, law of God. This law of God is, the life . This life, God, is everything in all things, the infinite diversity and fullness of the Being. In every principle of the law and in every commandment, it is the life, which opens up to us men through actualization and fulfilment, through our living and doing. May the one who can grasp it, grasp it. May the one who wants to leave it, leave it. The one who wants to grasp it can see every commandment as a doorway to the fullness of life – the life in God, in the Spirit of God.
When we immerse into the depths of life through our way of thinking and acting, we discover that ultimately every commandment is contained in the other commandments. This small booklet cannot convey the experience that everything is contained in all things, but it gives impulses, indications and examples for those who truly want to live a Christian life, that is, who want to follow the Christ of God in our time.
Just as He did 2000 years ago, Christ makes us aware of the highest commandment today, too: “Love God, your eternal Father, above all, and your neighbour as yourself!” All the commandments of God are contained in this divine law of Inner Life.
What is essential in this is that the commandments – like all divine truths – are not just written on paper, but are lived; only then can we grasp the word of God in its depth, His instructions of life for us men, His commandments. And so, Jesus, the Christ, said to us: “The one who hears these words of Mine and does them is like a wise man ...” He is not speaking any differently today.

No one of us Original Christians is already a perfect “doer of the word”, but we do our best each day to follow Christ. We do this by recognizing ourselves during the day, by clearing up our sins, no longer committing them and in their place fulfilling the spiritual principles of God, which are in harmony with the highest commandment of selfless love, with the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. Until people fulfil the law of God completely – that is, until they do the will of God in all things, so that His Spirit can work through them without pause – the daily struggle will go on. And so, it can happen that we still “fall down” in our thoughts, words and deeds, that is, we make mistakes and wrong decisions. When this happens, the point is not to just stay lying there, but to get up with the help and strength of Christ and align ourselves again with God and His commandments. This is how we continue to strive for the fulfilment of the law and thus enter into our spiritual heritage more and more, since this is the meaning and purpose of our life on earth. For us, this is what it means to follow Christ and to live in the Spirit of God.

The first commandment continues: “You shall have no other gods before Me”. Under “other gods”, the Original Christians understand not only power, money, highly developed technology, craving for pleasure, drugs and the like. We see it this way:
Everything that is not in accordance with the divine law, with the eternal word of God, is “other gods”, that is, idols. Our exaggerated wishes, passions and cravings are a part of this, everything that people strive for beyond a reasonable limit.
If we nurse these compelling, extreme wishes, cravings, passions and addictions – by moving them around in our feelings, sensations and thoughts for a long time, or even by doing them – then we worship these idols, so to speak, and pay tribute to them. The “other gods” can also be the people we place on a pedestal, whom we honour instead of simply respecting them as our neighbour.

The first commandment continues: “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth.” What do the Original Christians do here?
We know that the Spirit of God dwells in every person. In order to turn to God, our Father, and to Christ, our Redeemer, we don’t need any outer images, before which we kneel down and worship, but we go into our inner being and pray to God there. We don’t need any statues or shrines, any pictures of the crucified One, or any other things, because we know that the Spirit of God is alive in us. We turn to Him. He is our support and hold.
Every picture of a saint that is honoured is ultimately “the other god”, because every figure that is honoured in an external way draws us away from the real God, from God in our innermost being.

With our thoughts, we cannot imagine the eternal heavens. We can’t make a picture of the pure spiritual worlds, nor of angels, the spirit beings, and certainly not of God-Father, the Father-Mother-God, nor of Christ, the Co-Regent of the heavens. Images and statues are therefore just ideas. And when we go into the beyond as souls with such ideas, we will have to first discard them, until in the course of the purification process our soul comes to the true picture, to the reality of the Being, until we immerse into the heavens which we as people cannot imagine, until we behold God, our Father, face to face, and Christ, our brother and Redeemer, and all of our brothers and sisters who are divine beings in heaven. This is what Christ, the revealing Spirit, is teaching us.
The Original Christians in Universal Life don’t have a body on the cross either. For us, Christ is risen. We are aware that we bear the Lord’s deed of redemption in our souls, in our hearts. It is symbolized by the free cross. For us, the cross of resurrection is, at the same time, the sign that points the way into the eternal Being.
The body is presented in different ways. But if we believe that the body, the image, was once Jesus, then we have this body as an image in our soul. When we go into the beyond as a soul after our physical death, the image, the body, will appear. And we will then have a very hard time removing from our soul this image that we have worshipped again and again. It can then be a long way until we become aware that the risen One is a radiant being of the eternal Being and not a body on a cross.

In the first commandment, it also says that we should not make any images of what is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth. We can understand this when we know that everything that we see on the earth is not the true reality. Our physical eyes look at the shell that bears the life, the Spirit, within.
The animals, the plants, the stones, everything that is on and in the earth, what we see in the water and what is on the bottom of the oceans are aspects of God, which – because of the condensation of matter – have taken on another form than what they have in the eternal Being. We should perceive our second neighbour, the animal, in our heart; we should affirm and carry in our heart all of nature as the great creation light of God. However, it would be wrong to assume that the earthly form of life – for instance, the appearance of a flower or an animal – corresponds to the creation power of God in heaven. In the flower, in the animal, is the essence of life, is God – the external form is the material shell.
The nature kingdoms are aspects of God that have taken on form. And so, what we see here on earth is not the original creation, but only a pale reflection of how God created it in the pure creation. This is why we should not make any images of it and think that this form is the same in heaven.

Taking His name in vain is not only done by cursing, swearing or the like, but also when we say the name of the eternal holy One without thinking about it, for example, when we say, “Oh, God!”; or when we use words of greeting like “Greetings in God” or “God bless you”, without paying attention to what we are saying, without being aware of what we are saying.
We use the word “God” in many conversations, but what are we thinking while doing this? Often, we don’t think anything about it; they are just empty words, meaningless phrases. Yet, everything is energy. And this means that we are responsible for every word that comes out of our mouth. This is what the prophetic Spirit, Christ, teaches and this is the meaning of what is written in the Bible. So we should fulfil the second commandment by watching what we think when we let the word “God” cross our lips.
We often say, “Thank God, this or that didn’t happen to me.” We can say “Thank God”, but are we really thankful? Mostly it’s just an expression that many use, but only in the rarest cases do they use this situation as a reason to think about themselves – about their way of thinking and living, about what they have sown, and the harvest that may be awaiting them and about God and His commandments.
If we pause briefly in the situation, and ask ourselves how it happened that we said “Thank God” in relief, then this certainly can tell us something. If we recognize ourselves in the stirrings of our feelings, we learn to thank God from our hearts. At the same time, we make every effort to no longer commit this fault, this sin, that we have recognized and cleared up with Christ. This is the active thanks to God, our Father, and to Christ, our Redeemer.

As Original Christians, we often greet each other with “peace” and we have become accustomed to thinking about what this means. When we say the word “peace”, when we send this to our neighbour as a greeting, then we should daily strive to keep peace with our neighbour. However, if we belittle him, if we envy him this or that, if we hate him and then wish him peace, we are mocking God. And this is taking the holy name in vain.
God’s name is severely abused more often than is generally thought, because many fool others and themselves about the real motives of everything they do and let happen. We take the divine name in vain, for instance, when we join a religious group with the intention of attaining something for ourselves personally, when we want, for example, to secure a high standard of living, prestige and a worry-free life though an office in a community. The same is true when we work on a church council in order to be respected by our fellow men in the community or to “be somebody”. When the name “Christian” is added to a political party – as is often done in Germany – just to make people think that here the Ten Commandments are lived or that these people follow Christ, then this is taking His name in vain, if the name of the Lord is used like an advertisement, even though the life and goals of the people don’t correspond to what is required by the commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. And so, people are blinded by this and led astray.

In the second commandment, it says: “... for the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain.” Christ, the prophetic Spirit, teaches us that it is not God who punishes us for what we do, but that we punish ourselves through the law that says: “What you sow, you will reap.” It is not God who sows, but we; and what we sow is what we will reap. And so, we will come to feel the results of everything we do and let happen, because each one is responsible for himself. God will not raise the sinner into heaven, but will show him his offence, so that he can clear it up and no longer do it.
However, these connections cannot be seen in the words of the Bible which the Catholic and Protestant Churches had translated, for there it says, “Do not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will punish each one who does this.”
So we see that it would be good to first fulfil the commandments, instead of judging, and making God out to be a punishing God. He allows us our sin, because He gave us free will. Since He allows it – because of free will – He will never punish us for this. We punish ourselves.

Jesus brought us the Father of love. This was necessary, because in the Old Testament the “punishing God” was mentioned again and again. The vocabulary of that time developed from the belief in many gods. And so the Old Testament, to which the Ten Commandments belong, is filled with expressions that stem from the belief in many gods that punish. And much from polytheism was taken into the belief in the one God.
We should consciously ask ourselves: Do we believe in the punishing God – that is, in the Old Testament – or in the God of love whom Jesus, the Christ, brought close to us? In the New Testament, we can also find: “What the person sows, he will reap.” If we believe in a punishing God, then we deny this spiritual principle of sowing and reaping, through which, in the end, we are indirectly guided – by way of self-recognition and clearing up our sins.
We are Christians and we should decide: Either we believe in the punishing God or in the God of love and mercy: in the God who reconciles and forgives, in the God who, out of love, sent us His Son, Jesus, the Christ.

We should come together in community on this day; we should review the past week together and close it with the power of the Lord. The sinfulness that still needs to be dealt with, that is, what is still not cleared up, we should clear up with our neighbour, so that we can go freely into the new week. When all of this is done insofar as is possible, then we should praise and glorify God and thank Him and also talk about Him, who is the infinite love and who was with us all through the previous week. This is what the Original Christians do every Saturday evening. We come together in prayer; we review the week together; we close the previous week and then have supper together at the table of the Lord. We thank God; we praise and glorify Him and consciously take Christ again with us into the coming week, so that He may help us fulfil the commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.
And so on the Sabbath day, the Original Christians honour our eternal Father together and consciously cultivate the inner life more than the outer life on this day. In this way, this day is a source of strength for us. We won’t just waste this strength senselessly, but will draw from the wellspring, which is God, the hope and strength and confidence and also the joy for the coming week.

Christ, the revealing Spirit, teaches the following: Our Father and mother, too, are our neighbour. We should respect and cherish them, we should carry them – like all people – in our heart, but honour is due to God, our Lord, alone. So we should differentiate between “respecting” and “honouring”. We honour God by loving Him above all things, by setting Him above our human aspects and by clearing up our humanness, our sinfulness, with His power. We respect our neighbour by wishing him well from our hearts, by meeting him with understanding, by not being envious of him or belittling him, by leaving him his freedom and by doing for him first what we expect of him.

In the standardized translation of the Bible used by the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany, it is already “official”. There it now says: “You shall not murder.”
This raises questions. What is now correct? Is it “You shall not kill” or “You shall not murder”? How should we behave as Christians?
The footnote in the Scofield Bible mentioned above says that we should not kill intentionally. When considering the animal world, this commandment to not kill intentionally makes sense; for wherever we place our foot, there are many animals under our feet – in part very tiny ones. We crush some of the animals, but we don’t do it intentionally. When we lean against a tree, we may also kill some tiny animals; we don’t see them, and so we don’t do it intentionally. However, when we want to kill a person, then we will do this intentionally. And according to the common use of language, this is nothing other than murder. And so, killing is actually the same as murder.

When we look more closely at the facts, we recognize that when a human being kills another human being, then he has certain thoughts beforehand, and thoughts are powers. We may not see the thoughts, but they are energies, realities, and they have their effects. For example, in war, we have thoughts of fear. The enemy – this is what we call our brother – could kill us. And so, we kill him first. If one is a soldier, he has to have the thought that he will kill, for a soldier learns and practises killing in order to then do it.
If an institution – like, for instance, the Catholic institution or the Protestant institution – approves of war, then it’s not surprising that a footnote like the one given in the Scofield Bible is conveniently added.

Whether killing or murdering – everyone knows: The one who goes to war will probably kill his brother. Since Jesus of Nazareth told us that we are all brothers and sisters, children of one Father, this is simply fratricide, whether killing or murdering.
A question to you, dear reader: Does it make any difference to you whether you are killed or murdered? Probably not, because dead is dead.
If we are real Christians, then we have to ask ourselves what would Jesus say about this? When Peter cut off a soldier’s ear, He said to him: “Put your sword in its scabbard”, and Jesus healed the ear. Why? “Do not do violence or injustice to any person.”

Jesus said as follows: “The one who takes up the sword will die by the sword.” And so, this means that the one who takes up his pistol and kills his brother will also be killed by the pistol, by the shot, unless he strives for the grace of God and has pangs of conscience and clears up his guilt with his whole heart. But when we say right from the beginning: “Today I will kill my brother, who is my enemy, tomorrow I can clear it up”, then this won’t help us.
Violence will always produce violence. We know the senselessness of war. There, soldiers are sent to war so that there will be peace. But can one make peace with weapons, with cannons, with killing our neighbour?

We know that everything sinful that goes out from us comes back to us. The fear of our neighbour who feels the shot in his heart and senses that he will die, his pain, his many thoughts, his hatred, his desire for revenge are all energies that don’t dissolve into nothing. They will show themselves somewhere, partly in the one who dies, because he, too, was a soldier. He takes this part of the negative energies with him as burden into the realm of the souls and usually into a future earthly life. But the feelings and thoughts of the dying person will also fall back on the one who did it. He killed intentionally, because he knew beforehand that as a soldier he would kill.
What is not atoned for in this life will lead us into similar situations in future lives. For instance, we will be born in a country where war prevails. Through the wheel of reincarnation, the doer of the deed and his victim will come together again and again. They will be the culprit and the victim, enemies, again and again, until someday when they offer their hands to each other and make peace. The guilt that binds them to each other – that chains them to each other, so to speak – will be cleared up and dissolved only by asking each other for forgiveness and by forgiving.

The wheel of reincarnation, the reality of reincarnation is clearly visible in many of the occurrences of today. Everything is energy and no energy is lost. In war, for example, a tremendous wave of concentrated and aggressive negative energy becomes effective. It is the sin-potential of many people that has not been cleared up, and which has – possibly over centuries – accumulated and built up.
In the Bible it says: “What the person sows, that will he reap.” And so, if we sow death, by killing our neighbour intentionally, then we will also reap death in this way, if we don’t recognize our causes in time, clear them up with the grace of God and no longer do them. For this is what Jesus taught us.
The wheel of reincarnation keeps on turning and brings again and again to incarnation those souls which have loaded guilt onto themselves and not yet paid it off. When we trace back the various wars in this world, then we recognize that similar wars flare up again and again in the same countries or in neighbouring countries. Why? Because the causes haven’t been cleared up; they are coming into effect.

Through Moses, God gave us the commandment: “You shall not kill.” Why was this passage in the Bible recently falsified into the words “You shall not murder”? Let’s look behind this. The following explanation may be probable:
Both churches that carried out this falsification approve of war. With the reformulation of the fifth commandment, they now have a biblical justification for this; because according to their point of view the killing of a person in war is “only” killing and not murdering. Since killing is supposed to be allowed now, wars can thus be waged without reservation and people can be killed in war.
When we look deeper into the correlations, we again recognize here the wheel of reincarnation. In the past epochs, the Catholic Church marched into the “holy” wars, in order to kill or forcefully Christianize those of different faiths. And so, it was done by the Franconian army in the first crusade, for example, to the Jews in the Rhine valley and to Christian Hungarians and the Saracens. And this is also what happened to hundreds of thousands of Indians in the time of the discovery of South America. And it also took place in the 20th century when it was thought that the Balkan states should be populated only by “Christians”. One killed and robbed – and this supposedly in the name of Christ.
This massive potential of negativity continues to be present in the souls of the culprits of that time, if they have not changed their ways. And so, many church authorities of today, who may have been incarnated in those times and took part in the so-called holy wars, may still have this in their souls. And because it is still in the soul, the word “killing” is perhaps activated in many a so-called prince of the church. Thoughts and feelings come up in him. But instead of recognizing his thoughts and feelings and clearing them up with Christ, he suggests that killing in war is allowed, because it was also allowed in the holy war.

The wheel of reincarnation turns. The same souls come again into different human bodies. Where to? To that place where their soul burden draws them.
Let’s ask ourselves the question once more: Was this killing or murdering? And: What do we prefer? To be killed or murdered?
Both mean dead. Life is taken deliberately.
The fifth commandment also holds true in our relationship with the animals. Both institutions, Catholic and Protestant, approve of animal experiments.
But animals, too, can feel! The animals scream in the slaughterhouses, because they sense that their life will be taken in a few minutes. They sense they won’t be allowed to die according to the laws of nature, but that a bullet will end their lives.

Let’s look into this more closely and ask: Why are so many animals so sad? Because they have suffered consciously, or because they sense that they will suffer enormously, perhaps through animal experiments. The part-souls of many animals carry these experiences, the grief and suffering of hundreds and thousands of years. This makes many animals sad and others aggressive. Who is guilty?
That they were wantonly killed by the millions and billions, that is, deliberately slaughtered and used for experiments, well, what of it? “It’s only an animal” says the person, but the animal, too, can feel. An animal that is beaten feels; it cries; it complains. If we yell at an animal, see how it draws back and moves away from us. We can see that it senses and feels. And its feelings are much finer than those of a human being: It knows when it is going to the slaughtering block; it knows when it will be used for animal experiments.
And from the words “Do not murder”, couldn’t one possibly derive a justification for bull fights and cock fights, for all those occasions where people allow killing out of the lust for a fight, for the destruction of an “opponent” or for the pleasure of killing. But it isn’t murder.
The human being is cruel. So why is one allowed to kill, but not to murder? We Christians should think about this “why”.

The sixth commandment has always read: “You shall not commit adultery.” In a newer Bible, “The Good News” it reads: “Do not destroy a marriage”. Whether we commit adultery or destroy a marriage – what is the difference?
To destroy a marriage means that we, a man or a woman, interfere in our neighbour’s marriage, by inciting the woman against the man, or the man against the woman.
On the other hand, “You shall not commit adultery” means: If I, as wife or husband, for example, have made a bond before God with my partner, I will remain true to him, in thought, word and deed. It is already a case of adultery when I am unfaithful in my thoughts, when I imagine another partner or imagine that I will have a physical relationship with him.

But all this begins with little signals – words, looks and gestures – which activate the thoughts and imagination. What sort of energies are those that flow, for example, when flirting – no matter how seriously. Are they divine? Is the goal of flirting to remain true to our partner and to our yes to our partner?
In this sense, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “You shall not commit adultery, but I say to you: The one who just looks at a woman in a covetous way has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
So, I can commit adultery even in my thoughts. We see that “adultery” and “to destroy a marriage” are not the same. And so, the Bibles are saying different things.
What did God say to the Israelites through Moses? Did He say: “You shall not commit adultery”? Or did He say: “Do not destroy a marriage?” Whom do we believe more? God through Moses, or those who corrected the Bible?
Let’s ask again for the reasons behind this. When a formulation changes so much, there must be something behind it. Did the correctors perhaps think that “adulterous behaviour” – for example, a little affair – doesn’t necessarily have to destroy a marriage? From this it would follow that such behaviour is allowed as long as it doesn’t destroy a marriage.

Why did the Bible correctors want to “allow” this adulterous behaviour?
Let’s think about this: When the wife or the husband know about their partner’s adulterous behaviour, what do they feel? What do they think? How do they feel? Perhaps they feel an unspeakable sorrow, disappointment, hurt feelings. Perhaps animosity, hate, strife and discord with their partner develop from this. Thoughts and words are set free as a result of this affair. We know that no energy is lost, and so where does this energy go? It falls partly back on the one who thinks these things and partly on the one who caused them.
As Original Christians, we believe in the words of God through Moses: “You shall not commit adultery.” And we believe in the words of the Christ of God in Jesus who said: “You have heard that it was said ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you: The one who just looks at a woman in a covetous way has already committed adultery in his heart.”
No person is perfect; therefore such things can happen sometimes. Perhaps the person brought an earlier act of adultery into this life with him as a soul burden. Now he should recognize this guilt in his feelings, sensations and thoughts and clear it up, but instead of clearing it up, he commits adultery again. If this happens, it now depends on how he acts in this situation. If he then recognizes what he has caused with this behaviour, feels remorse from his heart, clears it up with Christ and no longer does this, then he is forgiven by God. If his partner also forgives him, then this sin is wiped out. But if his partner does not forgive him, then this guilt still needs to be forgiven.

Adultery – how is it with those who aren’t married? How is it with celibacy, for example? Is celibacy something wanted by God or isn’t it a reformulation of the sixth commandment, possibly, among other things, a concession resulting from many indiscretions by priests. Who introduced celibacy?
Jesus, the Christ, didn’t talk about celibacy. We can’t say that Jesus wasn’t married and thus His so-called followers also aren’t allowed to marry. This would be wrong. Jesus came as the Son of God, in order to bring redemption. And Jesus, the Son of God, never said that marriage is sinful. He spoke for marriage, but not for adultery. Thus, celibacy can’t have come from Jesus either.
Can a person remain celibate, when in his soul he brought with him the desire for marriage, for a physical relationship? As Original Christians, we know about reincarnation and know that we bring again into this incarnation what wasn’t cleared up in previous incarnations. And so, it is possible that the desire for living together with a partner is active in a priest. Thus, if soul burdens from a marriage in previous incarnations are present, then he will again act in the same or like manner, if he doesn’t want to repent and clear up this potential of sin with the strength of the Lord. This holds true for all people and it also holds true for priests. This is why there is much sinning among priests in this regard.
We do not free ourselves by castigating and repressing, but only by recognizing our human, sinful, programmes and working them off step by step. No person is perfect. A true Christian struggles for perfection every day.

And how do the Original Christians act in their marriages?
As Original Christians, we remain faithful in our marriages, faithful to the person to whom we have said “yes”. We make every effort in our daily lives to live according to the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. This is why when disagreements come up in a marriage or partnership, we don’t ignore them until mutual disappointment builds up, but we clear them up each day.
An Original Christian told about how he clears things up when feelings or thoughts come up in him that are directed against his partner. He said: “I know the law of correspondence and I know exactly that what annoys me about her, what I criticize in her, has to also be present in me – at least to some extent. And so, before I criticize the splinter in my neighbour’s eye, I make every effort to take the beam out of my own eye, by asking myself what is still in me in relation to this sinfulness. I know that I can change only myself. And if I want to change my neighbour, then I have to ask myself whether I don’t want to change myself.”
No person is perfect, including an Original Christian, who strives every day to live according to the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. We asked the brother: “What do you do, for instance, when suddenly the desire comes up in you to approach another woman? What do you do when you are suddenly attracted to another woman and develop feelings for her?”
The brother answered: “I know that everything has a cause. And so, I ask myself what lies behind these feelings. My feelings, sensations, thoughts and possibly images tell me this. It can be a burden, a guilt from this life or also from a past life on earth. If I really want to know and also want to change, then I will recognize it. It will become clear to me against whom and in what way I have acted wrongly. I can then repent, ask for forgiveness, forgive and make amends for what is still possible. Then, concerning this, I will firmly resolve to think and act differently in the future, that is, lawfully. This is now said in a general way, but many very different circumstances can be the cause of this, depending on what I did wrong in the past.
It can also be that a disharmonious body rhythm causes sinful programmes to become active again. For when I am balanced and in harmony, the pressing desire for human, that is, female, energy doesn’t come so easily. Thus, there must be certain causes behind this wish. I then ask myself what has built up in my world of feelings, sensations and thoughts and why this has happened. There can be a discontentment in me, a disappointment, perhaps even unfulfilled wishes and the like. These are the thoughts and images in which I recognize myself, and which I can then clear up. I don’t have to live them to the full, but they become clear to me through the energy of the day, so that I can bring them into order with the help of Christ.”

More questions to the brother: “How do you put your desires into order? How do you clear up what moves and pushes you? Do you force yourself not to think about it anymore, or do you tell yourself: If I give in to these desires, then I’m just heading for adultery and so I’d better just let go of them. Or what else do you do?”
The brother: “When unlawful, pressing desirous thoughts come, it depends on how I react to them, how I deal with them. If I give my thoughts and imagination free rein and let a desire, which came up, continue to build up, then I intensify the desire. However, I want to grasp my thoughts and desires and look into them, in order to recognize myself and clear them up with the help of Christ. This is why I say “stop” to the desirous thoughts, but don’t repress them. I have to find the root, in this case, the root of my discontentment. Maybe the discontentment lies in a disappointment at work, or that I don’t fulfil some wish or other, possibly small, harmless, lawful wishes. Or I’ve been postponing for some time a clarifying conversation that needs to take place; or I’m avoiding a decision. There are many possibilities. If I find this root and put these things in order with Christ, then the cause of my desirous thoughts has been cleared up. Then I will also become free from the desire for another woman.”
Much disappointment in marriage and partnership comes from the fact that we live too close to each other, that is, that we have too little “free room”.
As Original Christians, we have experienced that if faithfulness is the commandment in Christ, then there are so many possibilities of being with one another in marriage and partnership. Then we try to find ways that both can develop in personal freedom. For example, each one should have a room for himself, to which he can withdraw at times; a room which he can furnish as he likes, and where he can live the way he wants to. In every case, the prerequisite for this is being faithful to one’s partner. And we can remain faithful to our neighbour only when we stay faithful to Christ, by striving daily to fulfil the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.
The key to a peaceful life with each other lies in being oriented to the same goal. If we both have the same goal, then we won’t hold back our neighbour or bind him to us, but we will let him have his freedom and thus become free ourselves.
God created us as independent beings and not to live dependent on each other. This is why as Original Christians we actualize equality, also as regards the husband trying to sometimes do the work of the wife and the wife likewise doing her best not to be dependent on her husband, but to stand on her own two feet. And this brings about independence and satisfaction on both sides. Every person should develop the talents and abilities that God gave to him. Each one should be there for the other one and not against the other one.

It is said: “On earth as it is in heaven.” Marriage
is wanted by God – but not limitation. Not adultery, but being with each other.
We Original Christian are not perfect either. There is also strife in many of our marriages. But the partners try again and again to settle this strife with the question: What is my part in this? For it is said: Remove the beam from your own eye, before you work on the splinter in your neighbour’s eye.
And so, we do our best to resolve disharmonies, by actively conquering our difficulties together, and finding solutions upon which a life of being together can be built.
We have experienced that partners who have disagreements again and again in their marriage or partnership can attain a more relaxed and positive relationship again when each of them can set up a small realm for himself within the house or apartment. Thus, the partners don’t have to separate.
If it is possible for each one to form this small realm in the house, then the individual can withdraw when he feels the need for this. Then he can live his personal life. The partners are not constantly grating on each other, and understanding and benevolence build up again. Each one works on his point in peace and they can reconcile with each other. Thus, peace is the result in many cases. The prerequisite for such a development is remaining faithful to each other and the willingness to reconcile.

In our marriages and partnerships, we strive to live in such a way that we both orient ourselves to Christ and turn to Him. In this way, a basis for the marriage is formed, which is worth upholding, which we don’t want to break. The orientation towards Christ together gives us the strength for a real and deep partnership. Only in this way can we be successful in building a family together in His name and in raising children who feel a secureness in Christ, who see that there is more to life than just egoism and materialism.
If there is harmony between the partners, this also has a positive effect on the children. The atmosphere in the family is of benefit for the development of each family member – even the family pets. The peaceful atmosphere at home radiates into other areas of life and into the surroundings. Light can do nothing but attract, because it is bright and warm. Where the commandments of God are kept, there is secureness in God and trust in one another and there is freedom.
But when one partner doesn’t want to fulfil these original Christian principles, when he or she has other interests, then despite this the Original Christians remain true to their principles. They won’t let their partner out of their heart, but will remain faithful to him, no matter what he does – even when one of them leaves the other and turns to another man or woman. For the commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” means: I have promised to be faithful to my partner; this means that I will give him his freedom when he turns away from me. However, I myself will not break this bond of faithfulness.
If the husband or wife wants a divorce because they want to remarry, then the Original Christian will agree to this. Then he or she is free to turn to a new partner, for he or she has not committed adultery. Nevertheless, he, too, will have to examine his feelings, thoughts and desires.

In the Sermon on the Mount, we have the instructions which help us recognize why we have made a mistake and how we can clear it up.
No matter what sin we have to recognize in ourselves, we can always turn back and change. For God loves all of His children. He doesn’t lock any of them out of His heart. This is why there is no eternal damnation, but the turning back through the grace of God. This means that when we fall into sin, we should neither stay lying there nor continue to persist in these thoughts, these sins, but should gather up the courage to take the hand of the Eternal and to stand up. And we should clear up our sins with the help of Christ in us and no longer commit them. This is the path to freedom. This is the path to our neighbour and with our neighbour. This is for us original Christian life.

Again we see that we shouldn’t take the Bible literally, but according to its meaning. If we can learn to understand the meaning, then we also know which passages of the Bible correspond to the eternal truth and which don’t. We can understand the word of the Bible according to its meaning only when we ourselves align with God by fulfilling the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount step by step. Everything else is opinion. And it will remain opinion and will not be the truth as long as we ourselves don’t strive for the truth. In other words: What we hear from or read into a statement, what we think or speak, will be the truth only when it is filled with our actualization of the commandments of God.
And so, what is the meaning of the seventh commandment “You shall not steal”?
Stealing means that we take something from our neighbour; we steal something from him. We steal money from our neighbour here or there; we steal his goods and possessions. But we also steal time from our neighbour when, for instance, we have unimportant conversations with him. We also interfere in his life when we prevent him from following his own way, by forcing our opinions on him and expecting him to believe what we offer him as our opinion.
Another form of stealing is to take energy from our neighbour by preoccupying ourselves with him – even if it is only in our thoughts – to such an extent that he takes note of us and does for us what we don’t want to do ourselves. If our neighbour can’t go his way because of our influence, if he can’t fulfil his thoughts and his will – if these are negative – then we have tied him to ourselves in order to take energy from him. He is then supposed to do what we want. Christ teaches us about this in His great work of revelation “This Is My Word”*:

“The one who allows his fellow man to lead him by the nose, thus doing what others say although he recognizes that this is not his way, is lived and passes by his own actual earthly existence. He does not use the days; he is used by those to whom he is servile and therefore does not know his path over this earth as man.
The one who binds his fellow man by forcing his will upon him can be compared to a vampire who sucks the energy from his fellow man. He does not know himself and at the same time ties himself to his victim – and vice versa, the victim who lets himself be drained also ties himself to him. Both will be brought together again, in one of their lives, either in earthly garment or as souls in the spheres beyond – and this, so often and so long, until the one has forgiven the other.”
Why is it that every thought is so decisive? Why is it that I can steal energy from my neighbour – soul and body energy – through my thoughts? After all, my neighbour doesn’t know my thoughts.
Mostly we aren’t aware enough of the fact that thoughts are powers and that we can become indebted to our neighbour simply through our thoughts. We can steal our neighbour’s soul and body energy by sending him certain sinful thoughts, for instance, desires. If our neighbour has similar aspects of sin in his soul – perhaps latent – as the ones we have emitted to him in our thoughts, then this potential starts to vibrate in him; it becomes active. It rises up in his world of feelings and thoughts. By emitting towards him in thoughts, we have caused this reaction in him; we have infected him with our thinking, wanting and desiring.

An example of this: A man sees a woman. The sensation comes up in him that he wants to get to know her better; he wants to come into contact with her. The woman doesn’t think about him. But he thinks about her again and again. The effect can be that she becomes aware of him and starts thinking about him. Maybe even the same desires form in her that are active in him towards her. And so, through his initiative, he has set into motion a whirl of thoughts in her, perhaps even to the point of desiring him.
But if a desire breaks out in the woman, because she has something similar in her that isn’t directed towards the sender, but towards another man to whom the woman now emits, then the man who awakened this sending-potential in her shares in the sins initiated in the woman. He likewise has a share of the sins of the man whom she emitted towards, in whom perhaps the same or similar desire was stimulated. And so, the thoughts went from the sender, the man, to the woman; some things were triggered in the woman; thoughts then went from the woman to another man, in whom some things, in turn, became active. Perhaps this man now thinks about another woman or because of the tension does something negative, maybe even violent. Who is now to blame for the sinful deed of this man?

And so, we see how a chain of guilt can develop, to which every individual who contributed to it is bound with his share.
Much suffering can be woven into such a guilt-complex. One of the participants may be unfaithful to his partner; another may not reach his life’s goal anymore; yet another falls into self-pity and depression and so on.
In our example, the starting point of all this trouble was the man who emitted. Who bears the greater guilt? He or the others who were stimulated by him? He has to bear the greatest guilt, because he stole from his neighbour. He caused the lack of energy in the woman towards whom he had emitted his thoughts, so that these causes were awakened too early in her.

Even if these causes lie in the soul of our neighbour, we don’t have the right to activate them through our thoughts, through our desires. This is why thoughts are very dangerous and why we can steal from our neighbour through our thoughts.
If we aren’t aware of these correlations, if we don’t know about a sending-potential that can trigger a lot of thoughts in our neighbour, we are convinced that we haven’t violated the seventh commandment “You shall not steal”. We have never stolen money or taken our neighbour’s goods and possessions, and so we think we are faultless in regards to the seventh commandment.
Therefore, let’s ask ourselves if we are faultless in our thoughts? We could also try to recognize ourselves even more, by asking ourselves: From whom have we taken energy by sending thoughts towards them? Whom have we influenced through our desires and wants, through our emitting towards them, that is, whom have we had an effect on, in order to gain something for ourselves?
One would think that our intentions – for ourselves as well as for our neighbour – are more visible, that is, recognizable, in our words and actions than in our feelings, sensations and thoughts. But here, too, care is called for, because appearances often deceive.

If we look into the true motives of our words and actions, then we may discover that we have acted in an underhanded way and have thus stolen from our neighbour. Perhaps we have, for instance, intentionally given our neighbour a present in order to receive a bigger present. Or we have flattered him, we have buttered him up, in order to get him in the right mood, so that he will do what we want in our thoughts. Flatterers, yes-men and hypocrites always want something for themselves and thus steal from their neighbour.
Let’s look into this world. There is a fight for the energy – for example, the money – of our neighbour. A correct trade cycle is based on the principle of “giving and receiving”. If this cycle is in balance, then we receive as much as we have given selflessly. The “being for and with one another” of a true Christian community life is based on this; and the result is the good for all, the common good.
The principle of “giving and receiving” is misused not only now and then in the world of commerce. Just an example: If prices are set too high, then this is stealing from our neighbour. Wherever one looks there is inequality. Generally, more is taken than given. And through this, the world will tip over someday.
It is similar in nature. Mother Earth is being exploited. For thousands of years, we have taken her energies – and we haven’t given her much more than poison. This is why even our own food is partly poisoned; and this is why we, too, will poison ourselves little by little. The fruits are becoming visible, the effects of what we have caused. This is the way the law of sowing and reaping works.

Where do the many diseases come from? They don’t only come from impure food, from bad, polluted water, but also from what we have sown, which is made up of countess negative, unlawful, selfish and egoistic feelings, sensations, thoughts, words and deeds. The water, the bad food, is merely the product we take in, which then stimulates the body – already weakened by the law of sowing and reaping – to become ill, so that we finally fall ill.
It is obvious that especially the so-called Christians in the western, highly-civilized, high-tech, capitalistic, successful world have ground the seventh commandment under their feet. We are all now starting to feel the devastating consequences.
Here, too, we see again the chain of causes. The one who, for instance, produces poison is also to blame for the damage and misery in the nature kingdoms and that people become ill from the poison and then also emit the corresponding negative thoughts through the illness that may have broken out too soon. This negative thought- and sending-potential stimulates, in turn, more people to negative thoughts and actions. And so, the chain of causes can grow longer and longer. The person who produces the poison is the main one to blame for this chain of causes, but each one who is part of it because of what he did or let happen bears part of the guilt – even through indifference in the face of an obviously deplorable state of affairs.

In most Bibles, the eighth commandment reads: “You shall bear no false witness against your neighbour” or “your neighbours”. One more time the Bible “The Good News” is an exception. There one can read: “Speak no untruth about your fellow man.”
And so, we violate the eighth commandment when we say something about our neighbour that is not true. But bearing false witness also means to flatter our neighbour, to speak honeyed words to him, to praise him, to acknowledge him with a lot of words, with a lot of flowery words, in order to perhaps achieve something for ourselves, personally. Our thoughts, our wants are then totally different than our words. This is false witness – falsehood. And we act this way in order to steal energy, acknowledgement and attention from our neighbour, which he wouldn’t have otherwise given us in the form that we wanted. Then it is not only that we don’t say the truth, but we don’t even give our honest opinion; we say what we think our neighbour wants to hear. We can see that the seventh commandment “You shall not steal” is also a part of this commandment.

What is an opinion? “Opinion” always says that we don’t know something. We don’t know the truth and therefore we think up something that fits into our way of thinking and thus sounds logical to us. This is then our opinion. Since an opinion bears witness to not-knowing, it can be untrue.
Seen spiritually – that is, in reality – a word, a statement, a thought, as we heard, remains empty and hollow as long as the word comes solely from what we have read, from our intellect, from our knowledge. The word gains sound, weight and meaning, only when the person fills what he speaks with life, that is, with the truth – with his actualization, the deed.

The person who lets the commandments of God come alive in his thoughts, words and deeds knows that what he speaks about is true, because he has experienced and learned it himself. His feelings, sensations and thoughts then agree with his words. On the other hand, the person who speaks about life – about divine principles of the law as well as about things concerning the daily living of people together – and does not apply them in his own life, not having experienced them, cannot do anything more than express a supposition, a conception, an opinion.
A truth, a spiritual principle of Inner Life, can thus be conveyed and passed on solely by the person who has actualized – that is, lived – this himself.
It is claimed that priests, ministers, bishops or cardinals are guarantors for the truth. So can bishops, cardinals, ministers and priests have opinions? As we have seen, an opinion is not necessarily the truth. So if we do not speak the truth as guarantors, then we are bearing false witness against our neighbour and thus commit a sin. Here, a question comes up: Can we absolve the sins of our brother or sister who comes to us and tells us about his or her cares and sins, when we ourselves sin knowingly or even intentionally?

We all should check what we say every day. For each one of us is a guarantor before God. He guarantees before God that what he says corresponds to the truth. If our words don’t correspond to the truth – that is, are only suppositions or opinions – and we are aware of this because our thoughts show something totally different and because we may even act totally differently, then we are bearing false witness. We thus speak falsely, because we think differently. We are speaking untruly and are untruthful. We are liars.
Only the one who is upright himself, that is, who is truthful – the one who says what he feels, senses and thinks and also acts accordingly – is able to tell the upright, honest person from liars, opinion-makers and tempters. If we do not strive with all our strength to orient our thinking and acting to the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, we often fall victim to opinion-makers.
As Original Christians, we observe the eighth commandment in the following way: We try to observe ourselves daily in everything that we think, say and do. If we are in conversation with our neighbour, we ask ourselves: Is what we are saying the truth or is it a false witness? We recognize ourselves by examining and controlling not only our words, what we are saying, but also our thoughts all the way to our feelings, to see whether they are truthful.

Of course one could say: Everything is truth for the one who has no pangs of conscience; he bears much false witness against his neighbour. However, it is normal to have pangs of conscience, if we daily observe ourselves and place our life in the hands of Christ, by fulfilling the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount step by step. Then we recognize immediately: Are we speaking falsely, bearing false witness or being truthful? This shows itself in our feelings and in our thoughts. This is how the Christ of God revealed it to us, and the person who keeps to this recognizes himself and knows whether he is faithful to the truth, to Christ, and whether he is faithful to the eighth commandment in his feeling, thinking, speaking and acting.

We already violate this faithfulness to the eighth commandment when we, aware of what we are doing, pass on a rumour, like, for instance: “I heard that my neighbour said this or that”. If we don’t first check to see if it really is the truth, then we are already making ourselves guilty.
In order not to load guilt onto ourselves, by passing on as truth something that we have heard, we could add: “Well, that could be just a rumour.” But in this case, we have to ask ourselves: Why do we want to say anything about this rumour at all? What do we want to achieve with this? And so, we should not talk about a third person. If we notice something, then we go to our brother or our sister and ask him or her. We express what moves us. Then we will treat our neighbour justly and have taken a step towards fulfilling the principle of justice.
This is the way Christians should think and live. And in this way, we fulfil the eighth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.”

We can consider the last two commandments together, because their content is very similar. In the Scoffield Bible, a Luther translation, the ninth commandment reads: “Do not let yourself desire your neighbour’s house” and the tenth commandment: “Do not let yourself desire your neighbour’s wife, nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey nor anything that your neighbour has.”
In the revised Luther translation from 1984, the ninth commandment reads similarly: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house” and the tenth commandment reads: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, servant, handmaid, cow, donkey, nor anything that your neighbour has.”
In the Bible “The Good News”, the ninth and the tenth commandments are already combined. There it reads: “Do not seek to bring to yourself anything that belongs to another, neither his wife, nor his slaves, cow or donkey, nor anything else that belongs to him.”

What is ours in the outer world, here on earth, is our earthly heritage, so to speak. It is a gift from God, which we should manage well, but to which we should never bind ourselves.
The conclusion from this as regards the ninth commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house”, is: Be satisfied with what God has given you, with what you are granted to manage. It is your task to respect what you have on earth, to increase and care for it in a law-abiding way, but not to be envious of what your neighbour has.
Many are envious of their neighbour’s goods and property, because there is an imbalance, an inequality, in our world. If everyone had the same, then none would live in poverty and each would be more or less satisfied, because in the end, he has the same as his neighbour. It may be that what he has is formed or built or prepared and furnished differently, but seen as energy, it is the same. And as long as this imbalance exists on earth, people will violate the ninth commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.”
In the standardized translation of the Bible, we can read how the first Christians lived in the first century after the death and resurrection of Jesus. There we read: “The community of faithful was one heart and one soul. None would say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common ... And no one among them suffered need. For all those who possessed fields or houses sold them and brought the value of the things sold and laid it at the feet of the apostles. To each one was given as much as he needed.” (Acts 4:32-35)
We see that when people live the Christian ideals, the commandments of being for and with one another, of unity, togetherness, brotherliness, then the demands of the ninth and tenth commandments are no longer a question, for they are no longer tied to their personal property. Everything belongs to the community and everyone works in the community for the benefit of all.
The Original Christians of today strive for something similar. More and more people try to live in this sense. They put all their belongings together, so that each one can share equally in what the community administers and maintains, and can receive equally from what is produced in the community.

If parents haven’t acquired their property lawfully, how will things continue? According to the laws of the earth, the heirs receive the property after the death of their parents. But what is the spiritual principle here? Can property that was not built up with the positive powers of life, of giving and receiving, be lasting?
When we look into the world, we see that in many cases many a business dissolves in the second or third generation. It could be that the heirs have completely different interests. And so, what the parents have acquired in the wrong way often falls apart.
We can also look at the ninth commandment “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house” from a spiritual point of view.

As Original Christians, we believe that each of us is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that is, the house of God. How is it when we covet a person, in order to soil, to damage and to violate – perhaps in a physical way – his house, the temple? How is it when we see the house, the temple of our neighbour, as our property, in order to do what we want with this temple, this house?
If we use, for example, this house – the person – in which the Spirit of God dwells, as a slave, if we put the heaviest burdens and hardest work onto him, if we let our fellow man work for us for a meagre salary, while we, on the other hand, carouse and indulge and divert ourselves with our wealth, then we feel we are equal to God and thus penetrate like a false god into the temple, into the house of our neighbour and make him into our tool.

When we look into the history of the western world, we see that serfdom began in the Middle Ages. The farmers were there for the nobility, to work for them, and received only a fragment of what they produced. Let’s also think about slavery. The Europeans went to Africa and stole people, took them to America in ships and auctioned them off like so many goods. And the property owners in the New World bought up the slaves, paid money for them, and kept them in part like animals, used their manpower, and often let them vegetate away under wretched conditions.
History shows that one of the “Christian” official churches held slaves into the 19th century. Then the question arises: Who determines the policy of this institution? Was it the Christ of God who, as Jesus, taught brotherliness, or were other forces at work?
In Africa people were taken prisoners and auctioned off – slave trade was practised. This doesn’t happen this way anymore. But doesn’t something similar happen with the baptism of babies? We are not yet completely freed from slavery, for: Children who can’t decide for themselves, because they are still too young and thus don’t yet have the ability to tell the difference, are simply taken and bound to an institution through baptism, even though Jesus taught: “First teach and then baptize”. This means: Let your neighbour decide freely whether he wants to accept this or that religion.
And so, we see that we should not cling to the letter of the Bible, for otherwise many of us could say: “I don’t covet my neighbour’s house; I am content with what I have and am satisfied, and so I don’t violate the ninth commandment ‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house’. Thus, I am a good Christian.” The person who does not examine himself, who doesn’t get to the bottom of his thoughts, who doesn’t grasp the meaning of the words in the Bible, deceives himself in the belief that he fulfils the Ten Commandments for the most part. An example follows of how a violation of the ninth commandment can take place in connection with the tenth commandment:
We have the tenth commandment in the Luther Bible and it sounds a lot like the ninth commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, servant, handmaid, cow, donkey, nor anything that your neighbour has.” This commandment says that we should not take all this and much more from our neighbour. This doesn’t necessarily have to happen with violence or external reprisals. Often it happens in a much subtler way – through our wishing and wanting. And so, the following can happen:
We have our eye on a some property, for instance, a piece of land. We nurture wishful thoughts for a long time, perhaps for years, until one day our neighbour, through some situation or other, puts his land up for sale and we can acquire it. Then we think: “I always wanted this piece of land of my neighbour’s. Now coincidence wants this, too, and my neighbour is selling his land and I can buy it. What luck!”
Was this really coincidence or luck? Did God help us with this purchase? Or was it our wishing and wanting? Did we perhaps dream intensively – that is, fantasize in pictures – that we would possess this property? Thoughts are powers, just as are wish-images. Both strive to be realized.

This can happen in the following way:
We have emitted wishful thoughts, perhaps over years. We have placed a whole aura of our wishes over this property and now the owner has fallen into hard times. Who stimulated these hard times? Maybe it was us – with our wishful thinking. It is possible that these difficulties which helped in this process were already in our neighbour. But if they had come to light gradually, then he could have cleared them up step by step and would not have had to sell his property. So, we, too, bear part of the guilt in this process of sale and purchase.
Let’s carry the example a bit further: We buy the piece of land. Maybe we also take over the manservant, maidservant, cow, donkey and everything that the first owner had acquired. At first, everything goes well. But in the second and third generation the energy recedes, because our children and grandchildren have no interest in the piece of land. And then comes the question: Why is this so? The property was acquired wrongly, that is, untruthfully, insincerely and dishonestly, namely, because of greed and envy; in the last analysis, it was done with rapacious intent.
The woman mentioned in the tenth commandment can also be a part of this: We keep on emitting thoughts to another woman until we possess her, the same way we possess the property of our neighbour, dominate it and consider it our own.
Many feel that they are the owners of a smaller or larger wealth. How do we deal with our so-called property? Do we see it as our property with which we can do what and as we want – or do we see ourselves just as the steward of what God entrusted to us?
When we pass on everything that is beyond what we need, so that equality can develop on this earth and in this world, then we own our property rightfully. But then we are also content with our wife, our servant, our maidservant, with cow, donkey and everything else we have. The person who is not satisfied with what God entrusted to him to administer can then look for and accept what corresponds to his wish-image. However, the one who strives for, that is, covets, the property of his neighbour, wants something for himself exclusively. The one who wants something just for himself, his property, his possession, will also receive it sooner or later – but not through the divine powers. And he will hardly have it before he loses it. For a spiritual principle in the law of cause and effect says: You will lose what you want to hold on to.

For Original Christians, “coveting” is the same as “stealing”, because we know that with carefully nurtured wishful thinking we can often bring about more negativity than with words, which we express briefly, but no longer intensify in our thoughts.
Thoughts are powers. Covetous thoughts are robbing powers. If we can’t steal immediately from our neighbour what he has – at some point we will take it from him through our covetous thoughts, our dishonest words and perhaps through our dishonest actions, when our neighbour is receptive to this.
To belittle our neighbour because of an attribute, an ability or something he possesses and that we are envious of is also a violation of the ninth and tenth commandments, as well as of the seventh: “You shall not steal”.
As we can see, much is contained in the few words of the ninth and tenth commandments to help us recognize ourselves – on the one hand, the material aspect, on the other, the spiritual, the temple of God, the neighbour, our brother, our sister.

And so, this is how the Original Christians see the Ten Commandments and this is how we orient ourselves. Many a one of us can say that through this he has gained a happy and free life, that he has become content and that he has everything he needs and in many cases beyond that. For God is the fullness and gives to the one who doesn’t covet, who bears no false witness against his neighbour, who doesn’t steal from his neighbour - neither in thoughts nor in deeds.
Many of our fellow men will see the Ten Commandments in another way. We don’t want to force anyone to think and live as we do. Each one is free and each one has a different potential for recognition. If we live the Ten Commandments according to our criteria and knowledge – that is, include them in our lives – then we will be able to read ever more out of each commandment, because our consciousness expands and we can see things more deeply.

The first, important words that God gave us with the Ten Commandments read: “I Am the Lord, your God.” This statement is of fundamental significance for us Original Christians, because God is the origin and the life of all beings, all things, all Being.
God is the one source, out of which His light, His power, the life, stream. God is likewise the eternal, streaming, highest energy, which is also called spiritual light-ether or Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is the creating or creative power which also respirates, vivifies, nourishes and maintains all things. It causes the forms of Being to come into existence and guides them to evolution. It causes the countless forms of the spiritual kingdoms of minerals, plants and animals to grow and mature, to go through the various states and levels of consciousness – from nature beings to the mature spirit beings, the children of God, on earth called “angels”.
God also gave form to Himself: He is the highest spirit being, the Father of all spiritual beings, which are His perfect images.

God is also the power and the life in matter and the Father of all souls and men. He is our origin and our goal. The children of God in the earthly garment and in the planes of purification – to where all souls go after laying aside their earthly body – are called to become again the images of God, which we are in our origin, by our gradual actualization and fulfilment of the laws of God, so that we will become pure and perfect again and return to the heavens. The Ten Commandments of God, which are excerpts from the Absolute Law of the heavens, show us the way there. A life against the commandments of God, a life in sin, leads to being far from God and – in accordance with the law of sowing and reaping – into further lives on earth filled with shadows and suffering.

If we include in our daily lives the knowledge about where we came from and where we are going, we will use our days to recognize our debts and to clear them up, as Jesus taught us: by repenting, asking for forgiveness, forgiving, making amends and no longer committing the sins that we have recognized. Through this, we come closer to God, step by step. We remove what has been placed over our divine heritage as burden, as shadows, as sins, and let the pure, the light-filled, the divine come forth more and more. In this way, we fulfil the meaning and purpose of our life on earth, for: We are on earth to become divine again.
We Original Christians walk the Inner Path and grow, through the step by step actualization and fulfilment of His commandments, into a responsible life in the Spirit of God. We strive in all areas of our daily life to fulfil the divine principles of equality, freedom, unity and brotherliness, which result in justice.