Eternal Principles
Table of Contents
Eternal principles = what Jesus taught that doesn't expire when the culture shifts - love God, love people, forgive, seek the kingdom first.
I split them into one-claim notes so I can link and drill them like the rest of the garden. The ground is Free Grace: eternal life is God's gift by faith in Christ, not works. These principles aren't the price of heaven. They're how I try to live once I've already received it.
Start at Free Grace if the order matters. Then wander by section below. Gospel spine notes carry six review cards each - drill at /notes/review/ and filter by Eternal Principles (full deck), Faith, Commandments, Ethics, Prayer, Priorities, or Discipleship to match each section.
Theological basis
- Free Grace - salvation by faith, not works; principles follow, they don't pay the fare
- Repent and Believe - kingdom at hand now; turn and trust, don't wait until you're “ready”
- Childlike Faith - receive like a child; stop negotiating merit before you enter
- Abide in Me - fruit from staying connected to Christ, not self-generated effort alone
The two great commandments
- Love God - first commandment; heart, soul, mind, strength - whole-person devotion
- Love Your Neighbor - second command; hangs on the first, not a separate ladder
How to treat others
- The Golden Rule - treat others the way you want to be treated
- Love Your Enemies - pray for persecutors; love beyond your own tribe
- Forgiveness - release the debt; forgive as you've been forgiven under grace
- Reconciliation Before Worship - settle with your brother before the altar
- Peacemakers - those who actively pursue peace inherit blessing
- Turn the Other Cheek - refuse the cycle of retaliation; stop investing anger
- Let Your Yes Be Yes - plain speech; one claim, no oath-padding
- Judge Not - no hypocritical condemnation; remove your plank first
- By Their Fruits - discern teachers by outcome, not hype or credentials
- Heart Righteousness - inner motive counts, not only outward acts
Heart and priorities
- Ask Seek Knock - keep asking, seeking, knocking on rhythm
- Secret Devotion - prayer and giving without performing for an audience
- Seek the Kingdom First - God's reign gets first place in the week
- Don't Worry - trust provision; one Master, not many anxieties fighting for attention
- Treasure in Heaven - store what lasts, not what rusts or rots on earth
- Eternal Rewards - the Father repays faithful obedience after salvation; not how eternal life is received
- The Beatitudes - kingdom character in nine blessings; who inherits what
Character and witness
- Humility and Service - lead by serving; wash feet, don't grasp status
- Let Your Light Shine - visible good works so others see and glorify God, not you
- Take Up Your Cross - daily self-denial; follow behind, not a one-time hero sprint
- The Wise Builder - hear Jesus and do; sand collapses when the storm hits
- The Narrow Way - few find it; costly discipleship, not the broad comfortable path
Church and world
- Render Unto Caesar - sort civic duty from ultimate allegiance; dual obligations clarified
- Great Commission - make disciples; truth shared, not hoarded in the garden
Cross-links (PKM)
Same ideas show up in my PKM notes. I wired the pairs below so the faith cluster and the productivity cluster talk to each other:
| Faith note | PKM partner | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Free Grace | Minimum Effective Dose | Free Grace is the smallest sufficient act - not a works ladder |
| Forgiveness | Sunk Cost Fallacy | Release the debt; stop counting past hurt as a reason to stay angry |
| Seek the Kingdom First | Signal vs Noise | Kingdom-first is the priority filter for what gets my week |
| Treasure in Heaven | The Collector's Fallacy | Hoarding articles or stuff on earth vs storing what lasts |
| Eternal Rewards | Compounding | Daily faithfulness stacks; reward is not a lump-sum merit purchase for heaven |
| Don't Worry | Slow Productivity | Less anxious busy-ness; fewer masters fighting for attention |
| Let Your Light Shine | Drafting in Public | Visible good works and visible notes - both put work in the open |
| Reconciliation Before Worship | Note Relationships | Broken relationships, like broken wikilinks, need repair before performance |
| Eternal Principles | First Principles Thinking | Received gospel vs claims I derive from scratch - different jobs |
| Repent and Believe | There Is No Perfect Solution | Enter now - don't wait until you're “ready” |
| Turn the Other Cheek | Sunk Cost Fallacy | Stop investing anger after sunk hurt |
| Let Your Yes Be Yes | Atomic Notes | One plain claim - no padded speech |
| Take Up Your Cross | Process Over Outcomes | Daily self-denial beats a one-time hero sprint |
| The Wise Builder | Creative Output | The Wise Builder - obedience, not hearing alone |
| By Their Fruits | Signal vs Noise | Discern teachers by outcome, not hype |
| Secret Devotion | Drafting in Public | Hidden piety vs performance for an audience |
| Great Commission | Creative Output | Truth shared - not hoarded in the garden |
| Abide in Me | Compounding | Fruit from connection over time - not self-power alone |
| Childlike Faith | Getting Started | Beginner posture - receive the guide, don't perform expertise you don't have |
| Ask Seek Knock | Periodic Knowledge Review | Keep asking on rhythm - review loop, not one cram session |
| The Beatitudes | Evergreen Notes | Character that matures over years, not fleeting capture |
| Love Your Neighbor | Associative Linking | Neighbors in the graph - ideas linked by proximity and care |
| The Golden Rule | Note Relationships | Treat links like neighbors - typed relationships, not vague vibes |
Extends Free Grace. Contradicts First Principles Thinking when I treat gospel ethics as ideas I invented. Index for gospel notes in this garden.
