The true teachings of Jesus take some philosophy known to the Greeks of his time as a starting point. I am talking about the philosophical understanding of the way a human being works. You have your body with its animal-like workings. Then you have your spirit and higher mental workings. The spirit part of you should be able override and control that animal part of you. Of course, we know this. But it is good to think of it clearly, so that we can understand the teachings of Jesus Christ. Plato was the ancient world’s Greek philosopher who wrote about it, explaining at the time how humans need to exercise their noblest side, their spirit, to control their baser animal side, using their knowledge to help them. Jesus confirmed it. He taught how the flesh is weak while the spirit is willing. The weak human flesh needs to be conquered by the spirit and the will. That flesh is what counts for nothing compared with the potential of the spirit to give the person their noblest life. Righteousness makes this vital. Because of the need to stop oneself from lying and living a low life driven by hateful motives, of the kind that can get us condemned in court or into trouble with our moral neighbours, the life we need to live makes controlling those baser instincts and human weaknesses a real must. The spirit is the seat of our will. It must be given prominence, to work with our mind and knowledge to gain the upper hand over our baser selves. Jesus gave sayings and teachings which empower all this, if we believe in his veracity and retain his teachings, letting them stimulate and empower this spirit side of us, letting our minds be instructed by these sayings. Then Jesus provided for us to also be given spiritual help from God in this. The Holy Spirit comes alongside our human spirit to boost our potential to live this way. Jesus taught us to ask God for this. It is like daily bread, and we can ask the Father for this. It is spiritual sustenance our spirit needs. We also have knowledge that Jesus too had this human state of struggle of spirit over flesh. That knowledge is spiritual sustenance for us too. He ultimately so completely gained the spiritual upper hand over his baser humanness that he was able to endure death on a cross for each of us. This allowed God to raise him from the dead. Interestingly, the Greeks of his time, who would have probably seen in him the epitome of the philosophical teacher they highly valued, and might have stood up for him against the Jews and Romans, wanted to meet him around the time he was about to be taken by the Jews and Romans. He would not let this possibility distract him from his ultimate obedience to the will of the Father, because he knew that only in dying would he become the seed of the many, filling the earth with his light from God. So he committed to the way of the cross. It was spirit which taught him this wisdom. His flesh greatly resisted it and might have preferred a welcome by the philosophically minded Greeks of his day, elevating him as teacher, preventing a painful and terrible death. But he overcame this fleshly diversion from the noblest path of submission to his heavenly Father’s greater will. And because of this we can have not only his teachings, but his sacrifice, and the way by which our sins can be forgiven as we seek a noblest righteous life. We can have him as our eternal teacher and good shepherd, to overcome evils with us and for us, as he is forever now alive from the dead. His victory can now be our victory, and by it we can be given the Holy Spirit to help us overcome, by leading us into all truth with Jesus as our perfect master.
