Simon Peter says, ‘Yes, Lord, we have understood it from the ground up; but this matter still has a dark side, which in my judgment is this: if, according to Your teaching, we abolish punishments for evil deeds entirely, evildoers will soon multiply like grass on the earth and sand in the sea. Wherever a law is given, it must be backed by an appropriate punishment; otherwise it is as good as no law at all. Or can a law also exist without a sanction?’
I say, ‘My dear one, here you judge like a blind man judging the color of light! Go and look at the menageries of the great; there you will see all kinds of wild animals, such as tigers, lions, panthers, hyenas, wolves and bears. If such beasts were not in strong cages, who would be safe in his bodily life near them? But what folly it would be to keep tender lambs and doves in cages too!
‘Hell certainly needs the strictest laws, provided with the most painful sanctions. But My kingdom, which is heaven, needs no law, and still less any sanction!
‘But I have not come to educate you for hell through the severity of laws backed by sanctions, but only for heaven through love, gentleness and truth. If I now free you from the law through My new teaching from heaven and show you the new path through the heart to true, eternal, freest life, why do you always wish to live judged and condemned under the law, and not consider that it is better to die a thousand times as to the body in free love than to walk one day in the death of the law?
‘It goes without saying that thieves, robbers and murderers must be caught and put into cages, for they are like wild, ravening beasts that dwell in holes in the earth as images of hell and lie in wait for prey day and night. To conduct a just hunt for such people is even a duty of the angels in heaven. But no one should destroy them; rather, they should be put into cages and soothed and tamed there. Only in the face of violent resistance should they be mutilated, and in the face of stubborn resistance also killed as to the body! For then a dead hell is better than one endowed with life.
‘But whoever continues to judge and kill a thief, robber and murderer in the cage will one day be looked upon by Me with angry eyes. For the more severely people judge and punish their evildoers, the crueler, more cautious, more secretive and more obstinate the evildoers still at liberty will become. And when they then break into a house at night, they will not only take everything they find, but also murder and destroy everything that could in any way betray them.
‘But take away severe judgment and give all people the wise advice that to whoever demands a coat from someone they should also give the cloak. Then the thieves will still come and demand this and that of you, but they will not rob and murder!
‘But when people, out of true love for their brothers and sisters arising from love for Me, no longer heap up the perishable goods of this earth and walk as I do, then soon there will be no thieves either, and still less robbers and murderers!
‘Whoever thinks that strict laws and greatly intensified judgments will in the end eradicate evildoers is gravely mistaken. Hell has never lacked these. What good does it do you to kill one devil if hell then sends ten in place of the one killed, one of whom is worse than ten of the first kind would have been? When the evil man comes and again finds evil facing him, he grows furious and becomes a satan in full measure. But if he comes and finds nothing but love, gentleness and patience, he desists from his malice and goes on his way.
‘When a lion sees a tiger or another enemy approaching, it soon fills with fury, springs upon it with all its force and destroys its opponent. But it lets a weak little dog play with it and grows gentle. If even a fly comes toward it and settles on its strong paws, it scarcely grants it a glance and lets it fly away unhindered; for a lion does not occupy itself with catching gnats and flies. But this is how every powerful enemy will behave toward you if you do not confront him with force.
‘Therefore bless your enemies rather than catching them, judging them and locking them in cages, and you will heap glowing coals over their heads and render them harmless to you.
‘With love, gentleness and patience you make your way everywhere. But if you judge and condemn people, who despite their blindness are still your brothers in the end, then instead of the gospel’s blessing you will spread only curse and discord among people on the earth!
‘Therefore in all things you must be wholly My disciples in word, teaching and deed, if you wish to become and be servants to Me for spreading My kingdom on earth. But if you do not wish this, or it seems too burdensome and too wrong to you, then you would all do better to return home. But I can raise up disciples for Myself even from stones!’