2026/07/13

256. The Gospel of John and the Priesthood of the New Covenant: Enmity God Has Put

When people come together in a group, information ("human information") is exchanged between them by chance. If one fails to distinguish this from oneself and absorbs it as one’s own knowledge ("human knowledge"), one receives images of good or evil from it, and an illusion arises. When an image of good is received, although a person's body is a single entity, like that of other animals, they harbour the illusion of having become one with another person, and this gives rise to great pleasure. We can see this in the words spoken by the "man" upon seeing the "woman" whom God had brought to him, when God created man and woman from "man": "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Gen 2:23). This is because, just as the "man" in the beginning of Genesis tilled the soil and named the animals in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, the Lord God grants human beings the experience of unconsciously collaborating with the Holy Spirit, so that they may, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, manifest the resemblance to God.

The spontaneity inherent in human reproductive functions, just as in other animals, serves to perpetuate the species as human beings and embodies God's freedom, which is the eternity and truth of the almighty God. For animals, the spontaneity inherent in their reproductive functions focuses their relationships and connections with others solely on the preservation of their species. However, the spontaneity inherent in the human reproductive function—endowed with power, wealth and authority so that humans, created in the image of God, may act in a manner befitting collaboration with the Holy Spirit—exhibits not only a drive for the survival of the species but also a strong inclination towards power, wealth and authority (cf. blog, No.252). This spontaneity, imbued with such inclinations, is linked to one's "human knowledge." When these inclinations are transmitted to his "human knowledge" whilst it is absorbing "human information," they develop into higher-order desires such as the need for recognition and self-actualisation; simultaneously, this involves a transition from illusion to fiction, leading to action. The desire that arose in the "woman" at the beginning of Genesis was to become "like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5).

In Genesis chapter 1, the Creator is referred to as "God," demonstrating that the work of creation, accomplished through the relationship of the Trinity, was the work of the only God (cf. Gen 1:1–2:3). In Chapter 2, the term "the Lord God" is used to denote the Father and the Son, illustrating how humans entered into the relationship of the Triune God and collaborated with the Holy Spirit (cf. 2:4–2:22). Meanwhile, in Genesis Chapter 3, it appears that the text clarifies the state and circumstances of humans at any given moment by using the phrase “the Lord God” when they could collaborate with the Holy Spirit, and simply “God” when they were unable to do so. This can be confirmed by noting that, in relation to "the man," the term "the Lord God" is used initially (cf. 3:9–10), followed by "God" (cf. 3:11–12), whilst "the Lord God" is used in relation to "the woman" (cf. 3:13–15).

The "man" was likely, whilst sharing information with the "woman," to have incorporated it into his own knowledge without distinguishing it, and found himself in the experience of saying, "I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself" (Gen 3:10). Eventually, his words, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate" (3:12) indicates that his fear of God had turned into hostility towards Him. Just as had happened to the "woman," strong inclinations towards power, wealth and authority—derived from the spontaneity inherent in human reproductive functions—had been transmitted to his "human knowledge." At this point, his "human knowledge," having absorbed "human information," was unable to maintain a personality befitting one standing before God.

Therefore, "the Lord God" said to "human information" (the "serpent"): "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gen 3:15). Here, the "enemy God has put" is like a fortress within one's "human knowledge" that prevents "human information" from intruding. It protects the realm of the human spirit from "human information." However, if a person crosses that fortress, absorbs "human information" and makes it part of their own "human knowledge," they will suffer. That is because a contradiction arises between one's "human knowledge", which has absorbed "human information," and the "enmity God has put." As this struggle intensifies and as that contradiction threatens to shatter the fictional world born of one's own delusions, one attempts to avoid the crisis by directing hostility towards his Creator.

This hostility towards the Creator eventually transforms into hostility towards one's neighbour to get a practical solution. Hostility towards one's neighbour is, so to speak, tantamount to directing hostility towards the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit is, after all, one's first neighbour. Human beings were created in such a way that, as a normal state of affairs, the spontaneity of the physical body—endowed with power, wealth and authority to manifest "our image"—is connected, through one's "human knowledge" and via "the Word (the Tree of Life)," to the "divine spontaneity (the breath of life)" within the person who manifests "our likeness." In this state, human beings can collaborate with the Holy Spirit and manifest the resemblance to God. The Holy Spirit is, for humankind, truly the one and only neighbour. When the time was fulfilled, the "enmity God has put" was born as Jesus Christ (cf. Lk 2:34–35). When a lawyer asked Jesus which commandment was the most important, Jesus replied as follows:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets" (Mt 22:37–40). "The Lord your God" refers to the Father and the Son. The neighbour whom one can love as oneself is the Holy Spirit. When one seeks to love the Holy Spirit as one's one and only neighbour, God's love is directed towards all one's neighbours.

Maria K. M.