compromise

109:5.4The great prob­lem of life is the ad­just­ment of the an­ces­tral ten­den­cies of liv­ing to the de­mands of the spir­i­tual urges ini­ti­ated by the di­vine pres­ence of the Mys­tery Mon­i­tor. While in the uni­verse and super­uni­verse ca­reers no man can serve two mas­ters, in the life you now live on Uran­tia ev­ery man must per­force serve two mas­ters. He must be­come adept in the art of a con­tin­u­ous hu­man tem­po­ral com­pro­mise while he yields spir­i­tual al­le­giance to but one mas­ter; and this is why so many fal­ter and fail, grow weary and suc­cumb to the stress of the evo­lu­tion­ary strug­gle.

144:6.11Many other mi­nor mat­ters were con­sid­ered and their so­lu­tions unan­i­mously agreed upon. These twenty-four men had a truly re­mark­able ex­pe­ri­ence these two weeks when they were com­pelled to face prob­lems and com­pose dif­fi­cul­ties with­out Je­sus. They learned to dif­fer, to de­bate, to con­tend, to pray, and to com­pro­mise, and through­out it all to re­main sym­pa­thetic with the other per­son’s view­point and to main­tain at least some de­gree of tol­er­ance for his hon­est opin­ions.

• conformed to parents’ wishes even if he disagreed

123:3.6Dur­ing this year Joseph and Mary had trou­ble with Je­sus about his prayers. He in­sisted on talk­ing to his heav­enly Fa­ther much as he would talk to Joseph, his earthly fa­ther. This de­par­ture from the more solemn and rev­er­ent modes of com­mu­ni­ca­tion with De­ity was a bit dis­con­cert­ing to his par­ents, es­pe­cially to his mother, but there was no per­suad­ing him to change; he would say his prayers just as he had been taught, af­ter which he in­sisted on hav­ing “just a lit­tle talk with my Fa­ther in heaven.”

• conformed to parents’ wishes even if he disagreed

123:4.3Je­sus, in com­pany with a neigh­bor boy and later his brother James, de­lighted to play in the far cor­ner of the fam­ily car­pen­ter shop, where they had great fun with the shav­ings and the blocks of wood. It was al­ways dif­fi­cult for Je­sus to com­pre­hend the harm of cer­tain sorts of play which were for­bid­den on the Sab­bath, but he never failed to con­form to his par­ents’ wishes. He had a ca­pac­ity for hu­mor and play which was af­forded lit­tle op­por­tu­nity for ex­pres­sion in the en­vi­ron­ment of his day and gen­er­a­tion, but up to the age of four­teen he was cheer­ful and light­hearted most of the time.

• conformed to parents’ wishes even if he disagreed

124:1.4But trou­ble was again stirred up at school when one of the more back­ward pupils dis­cov­ered Je­sus draw­ing a char­coal pic­ture of the teacher on the floor of the school­room. There it was, plain as day, and many of the el­ders had viewed it be­fore the com­mit­tee went to call on Joseph to de­mand that some­thing be done to sup­press the law­less­ness of his el­dest son. And though this was not the first time com­plaints had come to Joseph and Mary about the do­ings of their ver­sa­tile and ag­gres­sive child, this was the most se­ri­ous of all the ac­cu­sa­tions which had thus far been lodged against him. Je­sus lis­tened to the in­dict­ment of his artis­tic ef­forts for some time, be­ing seated on a large stone just out­side the back door. He re­sented their blam­ing his fa­ther for his al­leged mis­deeds; so in he marched, fear­lessly con­fronting his ac­cusers. The el­ders were thrown into con­fu­sion. Some were in­clined to view the episode hu­mor­ously, while one or two seemed to think the boy was sac­ri­le­gious if not blas­phe­mous. Joseph was non­plused, Mary in­dig­nant, but Je­sus in­sisted on be­ing heard. He had his say, coura­geously de­fended his view­point, and with con­sum­mate self-con­trol an­nounced that he would abide by the de­ci­sion of his fa­ther in this as in all other mat­ters con­tro­ver­sial. And the com­mit­tee of el­ders de­parted in si­lence.

124:1.5Mary en­deav­ored to in­flu­ence Joseph to per­mit Je­sus to model in clay at home, pro­vided he prom­ised not to carry on any of these ques­tion­able ac­tiv­i­ties at school, but Joseph felt im­pelled to rule that the rab­bini­cal in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the sec­ond com­mand­ment should pre­vail. And so Je­sus no more drew or mod­eled the like­ness of any­thing from that day as long as he lived in his fa­ther’s house. But he was un­con­vinced of the wrong of what he had done, and to give up such a fa­vorite pas­time con­sti­tuted one of the great tri­als of his young life.

• conformed to parents’ wishes even if he disagreed

124:1.13Je­sus con­tin­ued to grow phys­i­cally, in­tel­lec­tu­ally, so­cially, and spir­i­tu­ally. His trips away from home did much to give him a bet­ter and more gen­er­ous un­der­stand­ing of his own fam­ily, and by this time even his par­ents were be­gin­ning to learn from him as well as to teach him. Je­sus was an orig­i­nal thinker and a skill­ful teacher, even in his youth. He was in con­stant col­li­sion with the so-called “oral law,” but he al­ways sought to adapt him­self to the prac­tices of his fam­ily. He got along fairly well with the chil­dren of his age, but he of­ten grew dis­cour­aged with their slow-act­ing minds. Be­fore he was ten years old, he had be­come the leader of a group of seven lads who formed them­selves into a so­ci­ety for pro­mot­ing the ac­quire­ments of man­hood—phys­i­cal, in­tel­lec­tual, and re­li­gious. Among these boys Je­sus suc­ceeded in in­tro­duc­ing many new games and var­i­ous im­proved meth­ods of phys­i­cal recre­ation.

• conformed to parents’ wishes even if he disagreed
• never shirked responsibility of making daily adjustments

124:4.9Through­out this and the two fol­low­ing years Je­sus suf­fered great men­tal dis­tress as the re­sult of his con­stant ef­fort to ad­just his per­sonal views of re­li­gious prac­tices and so­cial ameni­ties to the es­tab­lished be­liefs of his par­ents. He was dis­traught by the con­flict be­tween the urge to be loyal to his own con­vic­tions and the con­sci­en­tious ad­mo­ni­tion of du­ti­ful sub­mis­sion to his par­ents; his su­preme con­flict was be­tween two great com­mands which were up­per­most in his youth­ful mind. The one was: “Be loyal to the dic­tates of your high­est con­vic­tions of truth and righ­teous­ness.” The other was: “Honor your fa­ther and mother, for they have given you life and the nur­ture thereof.” How­ever, he never shirked the re­spon­si­bil­ity of mak­ing the nec­es­sary daily ad­just­ments be­tween these realms of loy­alty to one’s per­sonal con­vic­tions and duty to­ward one’s fam­ily, and he achieved the sat­is­fac­tion of ef­fect­ing an in­creas­ingly har­mo­nious blend­ing of per­sonal con­vic­tions and fam­ily obli­ga­tions into a mas­ter­ful con­cept of group sol­i­dar­ity based upon loy­alty, fair­ness, tol­er­ance, and love.

• never shirked responsibility of making daily adjustments

124:6.18Thus ends the ca­reer of the Naz­a­reth lad, and be­gins the nar­ra­tive of that ado­les­cent youth—the in­creas­ingly self-con­scious di­vine hu­man—who now be­gins the con­tem­pla­tion of his world ca­reer as he strives to in­te­grate his ex­pand­ing life pur­pose with the de­sires of his par­ents and his obli­ga­tions to his fam­ily and the so­ci­ety of his day and age.

• conformed to parents’ wishes even if he disagreed

125:6.11Upon reach­ing home, Je­sus made a brief state­ment to his par­ents, as­sur­ing them of his af­fec­tion and im­ply­ing that they need not fear he would again give any oc­ca­sion for their suf­fer­ing anx­i­ety be­cause of his con­duct. He con­cluded this mo­men­tous state­ment by say­ing: “While I must do the will of my Fa­ther in heaven, I will also be obe­di­ent to my fa­ther on earth. I will await my hour.”

• never shirked responsibility of making daily adjustments

125:6.12Though Je­sus, in his mind, would many times refuse to con­sent to the well-in­ten­tioned but mis­guided ef­forts of his par­ents to dic­tate the course of his think­ing or to es­tab­lish the plan of his work on earth, still, in ev­ery man­ner con­sis­tent with his ded­i­ca­tion to the do­ing of his Par­a­dise Fa­ther’s will, he did most grace­fully con­form to the de­sires of his earthly fa­ther and to the us­ages of his fam­ily in the flesh. Even when he could not con­sent, he would do ev­ery­thing pos­si­ble to con­form. He was an artist in the mat­ter of ad­just­ing his ded­i­ca­tion to duty to his obli­ga­tions of fam­ily loy­alty and so­cial ser­vice.

• never shirked responsibility of making daily adjustments

127:6.12Je­sus is rapidly be­com­ing a man, not just a young man but an adult. He has learned well to bear re­spon­si­bil­ity. He knows how to carry on in the face of dis­ap­point­ment. He bears up bravely when his plans are thwarted and his pur­poses tem­porar­ily de­feated. He has learned how to be fair and just even in the face of in­jus­tice. He is learn­ing how to ad­just his ide­als of spir­i­tual liv­ing to the prac­ti­cal de­mands of earthly ex­is­tence. He is learn­ing how to plan for the achieve­ment of a higher and dis­tant goal of ide­al­ism while he toils earnestly for the at­tain­ment of a nearer and im­me­di­ate goal of ne­ces­sity. He is steadily ac­quir­ing the art of ad­just­ing his as­pi­ra­tions to the com­mon­place de­mands of the hu­man oc­ca­sion. He has very nearly mas­tered the tech­nique of uti­liz­ing the en­ergy of the spir­i­tual drive to turn the mech­a­nism of ma­te­rial achieve­ment. He is slowly learn­ing how to live the heav­enly life while he con­tin­ues on with the earthly ex­is­tence. More and more he de­pends upon the ul­ti­mate guid­ance of his heav­enly Fa­ther while he as­sumes the fa­therly role of guid­ing and di­rect­ing the chil­dren of his earth fam­ily. He is be­com­ing ex­pe­ri­enced in the skill­ful wrest­ing of vic­tory from the very jaws of de­feat; he is learn­ing how to trans­form the dif­fi­cul­ties of time into the tri­umphs of eter­nity.

• refused c. with evil

134:8.8To all the Lu­cifer-sug­gested com­pro­mises and make­shifts, to all such specious pro­pos­als about the in­car­na­tion be­stowal, Je­sus only made re­ply, “The will of my Fa­ther in Par­a­dise be done.” And when the try­ing or­deal was fin­ished, the de­tached guard­ian ser­a­phim re­turned to Je­sus’ side and min­is­tered to him.

• decided against employing c. to further ministry

136:8.4Je­sus had trav­eled much; he re­called Rome, Alexan­dria, and Da­mas­cus. He knew the meth­ods of the world—how peo­ple gained their ends in pol­i­tics and com­merce by com­pro­mise and diplo­macy. Would he uti­lize this knowl­edge in the fur­ther­ance of his mis­sion on earth? No! He like­wise de­cided against all com­pro­mise with the wis­dom of the world and the in­flu­ence of riches in the es­tab­lish­ment of the king­dom. He again chose to de­pend ex­clu­sively on the Fa­ther’s will.

• refused c. with evil

136:8.8Je­sus por­trayed to all the worlds of his vast uni­verse the folly of cre­at­ing ar­ti­fi­cial sit­u­a­tions for the pur­pose of ex­hibit­ing ar­bi­trary au­thor­ity or of in­dulging ex­cep­tional power for the pur­pose of en­hanc­ing moral val­ues or ac­cel­er­at­ing spir­i­tual prog­ress. Je­sus de­cided that he would not lend his mis­sion on earth to a rep­e­ti­tion of the dis­ap­point­ment of the reign of the Mac­cabees. He re­fused to pros­ti­tute his di­vine at­tri­butes for the pur­pose of ac­quir­ing un­earned pop­u­lar­ity or for gain­ing po­lit­i­cal pres­tige. He would not coun­te­nance the trans­mu­ta­tion of di­vine and cre­ative en­ergy into na­tional power or in­ter­na­tional pres­tige. Je­sus of Naz­a­reth re­fused to com­pro­mise with evil, much less to con­sort with sin. The Mas­ter tri­umphantly put loy­alty to his Fa­ther’s will above ev­ery other earthly and tem­po­ral con­sid­er­a­tion.

• met followers half way

157:5.2Je­sus had sought to live his life on earth and com­plete his be­stowal mis­sion as the Son of Man. His fol­low­ers were dis­posed to re­gard him as the ex­pected Mes­siah. Know­ing that he could never ful­fill their Mes­sianic ex­pec­ta­tions, he en­deav­ored to ef­fect such a mod­i­fi­ca­tion of their con­cept of the Mes­siah as would en­able him par­tially to meet their ex­pec­ta­tions. But he now rec­og­nized that such a plan could hardly be car­ried through suc­cess­fully. He there­fore elected boldly to dis­close the third plan—openly to an­nounce his di­vin­ity, ac­knowl­edge the truth­ful­ness of Pe­ter’s con­fes­sion, and di­rectly pro­claim to the twelve that he was a Son of God.

• met followers half way

157:6.6Je­sus had sin­cerely en­deav­ored to lead his fol­low­ers into the spir­i­tual king­dom as a teacher, then as a teacher-healer, but they would not have it so. He well knew that his earth mis­sion could not pos­si­bly ful­fill the Mes­sianic ex­pec­ta­tions of the Jew­ish peo­ple; the olden proph­ets had por­trayed a Mes­siah which he could never be. He sought to es­tab­lish the Fa­ther’s king­dom as the Son of Man, but his fol­low­ers would not go for­ward in the ad­ven­ture. Je­sus, see­ing this, then elected to meet his be­liev­ers part way and in so do­ing pre­pared openly to as­sume the role of the be­stowal Son of God.

• met followers half way

158:2.4As they con­tin­ued to de­scend the moun­tain, Je­sus said to them: “You would not re­ceive me as the Son of Man; there­fore have I con­sented to be re­ceived in ac­cor­dance with your set­tled de­ter­mi­na­tion, but, mis­take not, the will of my Fa­ther must pre­vail. If you thus choose to fol­low the in­cli­na­tion of your own wills, you must pre­pare to suf­fer many dis­ap­point­ments and ex­pe­ri­ence many tri­als, but the train­ing which I have given you should suf­fice to bring you tri­umphantly through even these sor­rows of your own choos­ing.”

• met Jews on their terms

167:4.5Then said Je­sus: “But do you not un­der­stand that there are twelve hours of the day in which work may safely be done? If a man walks in the day, he does not stum­ble inas­much as he has light. If a man walks in the night, he is li­able to stum­ble since he is with­out light. As long as my day lasts, I fear not to en­ter Judea. I would do one more mighty work for these Jews; I would give them one more chance to be­lieve, even on their own terms—con­di­tions of out­ward glory and the vis­i­ble man­i­fes­ta­tion of the power of the Fa­ther and the love of the Son. Be­sides, do you not re­al­ize that our friend Laz­a­rus has fallen asleep, and I would go to awake him out of this sleep!”

133:7.12The hu­man mind does not well stand the con­flict of dou­ble al­le­giance. It is a se­vere strain on the soul to un­dergo the ex­pe­ri­ence of an ef­fort to serve both good and evil. The su­premely happy and ef­fi­ciently uni­fied mind is the one wholly ded­i­cated to the do­ing of the will of the Fa­ther in heaven. Un­re­solved con­flicts de­stroy unity and may ter­mi­nate in mind dis­rup­tion. But the sur­vival char­ac­ter of a soul is not fos­tered by at­tempt­ing to se­cure peace of mind at any price, by the sur­ren­der of no­ble as­pi­ra­tions, and by the com­pro­mise of spir­i­tual ide­als; rather is such peace at­tained by the stal­wart as­ser­tion of the tri­umph of that which is true, and this vic­tory is achieved in the over­com­ing of evil with the po­tent force of good.

184:2.12Hav­ing taken the first step along the path of com­pro­mise and least re­sis­tance, there was noth­ing ap­par­ent to Pe­ter but to go on with the course of con­duct de­cided upon. It re­quires a great and no­ble char­ac­ter, hav­ing started out wrong, to turn about and go right. All too of­ten one’s own mind tends to jus­tify con­tin­u­ance in the path of er­ror when once it is en­tered upon.