John 3:31 · World English Bible
John 3:31 Meaning He Who Comes From Above Is Above
He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
What does John 3:31 mean?
Every thought a mind holds carries the mark of its origin. What is born of the belief in separation can speak only of separation; it knows the ground it came from and describes the world of bodies and limits as though that were all there is.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
John 3:31 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
Every thought a mind holds carries the mark of its origin. What is born of the belief in separation can speak only of separation; it knows the ground it came from and describes the world of bodies and limits as though that were all there is. What is born of love answers to nothing in that world, for it never came from there and is untouched by its fears.
A mind is always listening to one teacher or the other, and it can tell them apart by what they claim is real. One voice is bound to the earth it defends; the other stands wholly outside the dream and offers a peace the earth can neither give nor threaten.
He that cometh from above: the awareness of love, the teacher whose source is beyond the world and so cannot be shaken by it. He that is of the earth: the ego, the voice born of separation that can speak only of the body and the limited world it takes to be real.
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Christian Psychology lens
Live John 3:31 today
- When a worried thought arrives today, ask it one question before you follow it: what is this about? If the answer is something that can be taken from you, you know which voice is speaking.
- In a conversation with someone anxious, listen for the fear under the words instead of arguing with the words. You can be kind to the fear without agreeing that the world it describes is the whole story.
- Under pressure at work, when the stakes feel total, say to yourself quietly that this matters and it is not everything. Then do the next concrete thing from that steadier place.
Which voice have I been letting narrate my day?
The same truth in other traditions
Bhagavad Gita
What belongs to the changing world speaks only of the changing world. The witness within was never born in it and so is untouched by its gains and its losses.
Stoicism · Epictetus
Learn to tell apart what is yours and what is not. The voice that panics is talking about things outside you, and it will keep talking as long as you mistake its subject for your life.
Buddhism · Dhammapada
Track where a thought came from and you will know where it is taking you. Thoughts rooted in grasping can only describe a world of grasping.
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