Jesus' Teaching at Tyre 

From July 11 to July 24 of 29 CE, Jesus and the apostles taught in and around the gentile city of Tyre in Phoenicia, now known as Lebanon. They sheltered at the home of a believer named Joseph, who lived just south of the city. Seekers came from Tyre and nearby villages to meet and hear Jesus. The Master entered Tyre only once during the two weeks. While there, he spoke about the Father’s love for all mankind and about the mission of the Son to reveal the Father of all to everyone. Years later, a Christian church was built on the site of this ancient temple where Jesus taught.

At the temple in Tyre, Jesus employed two parables, one about the beautiful white lily that had its roots in the dark mud. And another one about a carpenter who wasted his labor on an unworthy beam. He taught many other spiritual lessons at Tyre. After his visit, the Tyrians carried Jesus’ gospel teachings to trading centers across the known world as they searched for the sea animals that were the source of the precious purple dye for which they were so well known.

Back at Joseph’s home, during their evening talks, Jesus answered an apostle’s question about whether God leads his children into temptation. He also discussed many other topics with the apostles while at Tyre, including love, destiny, spiritual progress, and dealing with challenges.

Each day during a two-week period in the city of Tyre, the apostles and evangelists went out in pairs to teach the people living in and around Tyre. Jesus remained at their lodging place at the home of a friend named Joseph and taught those who came to see him. He went into Tyre only once, on Wednesday afternoon, July 20, 29 CE. It was at the temple in Tyre where Jesus told his listeners a story about a white lily that reared its pure and snowy head high into the sunshine while its roots were grounded in the slime and muck of the darkened soil beneath. “Likewise,” he said, “mortal man, while he has his roots of origin and being in the animal soil of human nature, can by faith raise his spiritual nature up into the sunlight of heavenly truth and actually bear the noble fruits of the spirit.”

That same day, Jesus made use of a parable about his own trade, carpentry, to impress on his hearers the importance of building a strong spiritual foundation. He said: “In order to yield the fruits of the spirit, you must be born of the spirit. You must be taught by the spirit and be led by the spirit if you would live a spirit-filled life among your fellows. But do not make the mistake of the foolish carpenter who wastes valuable time squaring, measuring, and smoothing his worm-eaten and inwardly rotting timber and then, when he has thus bestowed all of his labor upon the unsound beam, must reject it as unfit to enter into the foundations of the building which he would construct to withstand the assaults of time and storm. Let every man make sure that the intellectual and moral foundations of character are such as will adequately support the superstructure of the enlarging and ennobling spiritual nature, which is thus to transform the mortal mind and then, in association with that re-created mind, is to achieve the evolvement of the soul of immortal destiny. Your spirit nature – the jointly created soul – is a living growth, but the mind and morals of the individual are the soil from which these higher manifestations of human development and divine destiny must spring. The soil of the evolving soul is human and material, but the destiny of this combined creature of mind and spirit is spiritual and divine.”

On the evening of this same day, back at Joseph’s home, the apostle Nathaniel asked Jesus: “Master, why do we pray that God will lead us not into temptation when we well know from your revelation of the Father that he never does such things?”

Jesus explained that understanding God's role in human actions has evolved. He noted that early Hebrews often attributed both good and evil actions to God's influence, believing God directed all human experiences, including temptations. However, Jesus clarified that many temptations arise from personal desires and the physical nature of individuals. He advised recognizing and redirecting these urges towards more constructive and spiritual goals, transforming them into beneficial actions. He emphasized that overcoming temptation should not rely solely on human will to replace inferior impulses with better ones; rather, one should cultivate a genuine love for noble behaviors. This approach leads to spiritual transformation, allowing higher desires to naturally displace lower ones, thus overcoming evil with good.

Long into the night, the apostles and evangelists continued to ask questions of Jesus. The following is a summary of his teachings restated in modern language and grouped by topic:

Forceful ambition, intelligent judgment, and seasoned wisdom are the essentials of material success. Leadership is dependent on natural ability, discretion, will power, and determination. Spiritual destiny is dependent on faith, love, and devotion to truth – hunger and thirst for righteousness – the wholehearted desire to find God and to be like him.

Do not become discouraged by the discovery that you are human. Human nature may tend toward evil, but it is not inherently sinful. Do not become downhearted by your failure wholly to forget some of your regrettable experiences. The mistakes of time will be forgotten in eternity. Lighten your burdens of soul by speedily acquiring a long-distance view of your destiny, a universe expansion of your career.

Make not the mistake of estimating the soul’s worth by the imperfections of the mind or by the appetites of the body. Judge not the soul nor evaluate its destiny by the standard of a single unfortunate human episode. Your spiritual destiny is conditioned only by your spiritual longings and purposes.

Religion is the exclusively spiritual experience of the evolving immortal soul of the God-knowing man, but moral power and spiritual energy are mighty forces which may be utilized in dealing with difficult social situations and in solving intricate economic problems. These moral and spiritual endowments make all levels of human living richer and more meaningful.

You are destined to live a narrow and mean life if you learn to love only those who love you. Human love may indeed be mutual, but divine love is outgoing in all its manifestations. The less of love in any creature’s nature, the greater the love need, and the more does divine love seek to satisfy such need. Love is never self-seeking, and it cannot be self-bestowed. Divine love cannot be self-contained; it must be unselfishly bestowed.

Kingdom believers should possess a complete faith, a whole-souled belief, in the certain triumph of righteousness. Kingdom builders must be undoubting of the truth of the gospel of eternal salvation. Believers must increasingly learn how to step aside from the rush of life – escape the harassments of material existence – while they refresh the soul, inspire the mind, and renew the spirit by worshipful communion.

God-knowing individuals are not discouraged by misfortune or downcast by disappointment. Believers are immune to the depression consequent upon purely material upheavals; those who live in the spirit are not upset by the episodes of the material world. Candidates for eternal life are practitioners of an invigorating and constructive technique for meeting all of the vicissitudes and harassments of mortal living. Every day a true believer lives, he finds it easier to do the right thing.

Spiritual living mightily increases true self-respect. But self-respect is not self-admiration. Self-respect is always coordinate with the love and service of one’s fellows. It is not possible to respect yourself more than you love your neighbor; the one is the measure of the capacity for the other.

As the days pass, every true believer becomes more skillful in alluring his fellows into the love of eternal truth. Are you more resourceful in revealing goodness to humanity today than you were yesterday? Are you a better righteousness recommender this year than you were last year? Are you becoming increasingly artistic in your technique of leading hungry souls into the spiritual kingdom?

Are your ideals sufficiently high to ensure your eternal salvation while your ideas are so practical as to render you a useful citizen to function on earth in association with your mortal fellows? In the spirit, your citizenship is in heaven; in the flesh, you are still citizens of the earth kingdoms. Render to the Caesars the things which are material and to God those which are spiritual.

The measure of the spiritual capacity of the evolving soul is your faith in truth and your love for others, but the measure of your human strength of character is your ability to resist the holding of grudges and your capacity to withstand brooding in the face of deep sorrow. Defeat is the true mirror in which you may honestly view your real self.

As you grow older in years and more experienced in the affairs of the kingdom, are you becoming more tactful in dealing with troublesome mortals and more tolerant in living with stubborn associates? Tact is the fulcrum of social leverage, and tolerance is the earmark of a great soul. If you possess these rare and charming gifts, as the days pass you will become more alert and expert in your worthy efforts to avoid all unnecessary social misunderstandings. Such wise souls are able to avoid much of the trouble which is certain to be the portion of all who suffer from lack of emotional adjustment, those who refuse to grow up, and those who refuse to grow old gracefully.

Avoid dishonesty and unfairness in all your efforts to preach truth and proclaim the gospel. Seek no unearned recognition and crave no undeserved sympathy. Freely receive love from both divine and human sources and love freely in return. But in all other things related to honor and praise seek only that which honestly belongs to you.

The God-conscious mortal is certain of salvation; he is unafraid of life; he is honest and consistent. He knows how bravely to endure unavoidable suffering; he is uncomplaining when faced by inescapable hardship.

The true believer does not grow weary in well-doing just because he is thwarted. Difficulties stimulate the devotion of the truth lover, while obstacles only challenge the fearless kingdom builder.

And many other things Jesus taught them before they departed Tyre.