ON LOVE; PART CCCLXVII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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The Gospel of Thomas

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.

(14) Jesus said to them: “‘If you fast, you will bring forth sin for yourselves. And if you pray, you will be condemned. And if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. And if you go into any land and wander from place to place, (and) if they take you in, (then) eat what they will set before you. Heal the sick among them! For what goes into your mouth will not defile you. Rather, what comes out of your mouth will defile you.“

(15) Jesus says: “When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your face (and) worship him. That one is your Father.”

(16) Jesus says: “Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the earth. But they do not know that I have come to cast dissension upon the earth: fire, sword, war. For there will be five in one house: there will be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father. And they will stand as solitary ones.“

(17) Jesus says: “I will give you what no eye has seen, and what no ear has heard, and what no hand has touched, and what has not occurred to the human mind.” ¹⁴

In the last post we competed our look at this fourteenth saying from Thomas Gospel and while this began as yet another confounding group of seemingly isolated sayings, we were able to make much sense of them by using them with the Master’s words from the accepted gospels and we found that they encompass a teaching by the Master that is intended to serve the disciples when they are out and about teaching the people from town to town and from city to city. Our assumption is of course that these men already KNOW the Master’s words from the Sermon on the Mount and that they had already been exposed to the rigors of discipleship teaching having been ‘sent forth’ as the Twelve and the Seventy. If we can view these words that the Master gives us here as Thomas recollection of an instruction given as they are preparing for Life on their own, perhaps after the Master’s crucifixion or in some interim period for which we have no other record, we can readily understand the ideas of the Master despite the seemingly cryptic and parabolic nature of their presentation. We should remember that of all the time that Jesus was among men we have but a very small amount of information and of specific occurrences and it is altogether likely that the disciples did have time on their own after that first recorded time that they were sent out; perhaps this saying is the Master’s teaching for just these occasions, built upon the previous teaching and expanding into areas that perhaps were troublesome. We must not forget that these men are disciples in training and that although they have met the requirements for discipleship, keeping His words and forsaking ALL among them, they are yet novices in the interaction with others and are still men in the world trying to overcome the years of nurturing and experience in the ways and the traditions of the Jews. This is the story that is painted for us in the Life of the Apostle Peter and, any of us who are sincere in our pursuits of the spiritual reality of True discipleship can likely see some of this in our own lives as we struggle daily to bring “into captivity every thought” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

We can see then that the Apostle Thomas is reporting to us a teaching by the Master that is intended to accomplish this:

• To remind them of the perils of following the traditions of the Jews based upon what He had already taught them in the Sermon on the Mount and the separate teaching about fasting and tradition which He gave in parabolic fashion using the old garment and the old bottle as examples.
• To give to them yet another slant on the concepts of alms giving, fasting and praying;
  • Alms giving from the perspective that as they go out, they go with nothing and so for them it is impossible to give alms.
  • In the instructions from the sending of the Twelve and the Seventy we have the reality of the disciple who accepts from those that receive them; that he accepts not alms but wages and this is revealed in that saying that “the workman is worthy of his meat” and that “the labourer is worthy of his hire“. In this concept the disciple is a worker in the field; the teacher, the preacher and the healer. Here we should see the negativity cited above in alms, both giving and receiving for in receiving another must give, for the enlightened man. And we should note here that these disciple have naught to give and we read this in the Book of Acts where Peter and John come across that crippled man at the gate: “And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said , Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk . And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength” (Acts 3:4-7).
  • In the instruction from Thomas’ Gospel there is a concept that is not found in the sending of the Twelve and the Seventy; that they should “eat what they will set before you” and while we can speculate at the reasoning here we can clearly see that is is a dissuasion to fasting, that they not follow in the tradition nor fast and perhaps offend those that receive them into their homes. We should note here also that the earlier instruction include that saying that the disciple not go from house to house, perhaps seeking the better accommodations, but that he should stay wheresoever he is received. As we saw in the last post, the wording of this negative saying on fasting may not be as it appears with the interlinear phrasing this as to say that in fasting one will “beget to yourselves a sin” and this is rendered as “you will put a sin to your charge” by Blatz. Understanding the idea of sin as the carnal view, the focus of a man in the self and the self in the world, we should be able to see that fasting IS a carnal endeavor and one that has no True redeeming spiritual qualities; here, this saying against fasting says that it is error in its own right and, combined with the idea of offense above, is an outright admonition that one should not do so…..at least not for spiritual reasons.
  • The Master speaks clearly about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount and there should be no misunderstanding of what He said although we KNOW that in Christian doctrine men do not heed these words; the Master tells us: “when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray , use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (Matthew 6:5-7). This IS a clear saying that is relatively ignored in common practice and this is likely the Master’s expectation of the way of prayer by the disciple; we should understand here as well that as much as there is tradition, old bottles and old garments, in fasting, there is the same here in prayer. Here we should understand also that the Life of the disciple is one of action, of doing, of keeping His words; in this, what purpose does prayer serve? The interlinear tells us that this is rendered as “they will condemn you” and there is a reality here that says that in the unanswered prayers of the disciple there will be condemnations of sorts from those for whom they may pray. The Way of the disciple IS action, it is KNOWING, the ultimate of faith and believing; can we see here how the admonition to “Heal the sick among them” can preclude prayer….that the disciple simply KNOWS that he can heal as we see with Peter and John above; they do not pray, they simply heal as does the Master.

We should be able to see in these words and those of the last two posts the ultimate reality of these negative sayings against fasting and prayer and alms giving and we should be able to see as well the use of these sayings in the work of the disciple who goes out among the people neither giving nor asking alms, eating whatsoever is put before him and healing the sick. In these ideas, this fourteenth saying can be seen as a real teaching by the Master to His disciples in the world of men.

This next saying, number fifteen, is again a saying that is outwardly obscure but at the same time has a ring of Truth to it in  its simple presentation. We can look at this in the same way as we look at the Master’s much disputed words from the accepted gospels, “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). We understand the Truth and the depth of this saying from Luke’s Gospel but most doctrine does not as they view His words in a carnal way; attending more to their perception of the evil Pharisee than to the Truth of the divinity of man. As we look at this commentary on this fifteenth saying we should be able to see a rather equal look that is found in the deeper sayings of the four accepted gospels:

• Funk and Hoover write: “There are no parallels to this saying in early Christian or gnostic tradition. Among some gnostic groups, the highest god is referred to as the ‘unbegotten’ (one not born), since birth would imply that the god was finite. This may be the background of the saying. Another possibility is this: Jesus may here be equating himself with the Father, as he sometimes does in the Gospel of John (10:30; 14:9). In either case, the Fellows took this to reflect later Christian or gnostic tradition.” (The Five Gospels, p. 482).
• Robert M. Grant: “Man who is born of woman is subject to sin, according to Job 14:1, as Doresse notes (page 143). The greatest of those born of women was John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28). Therefore, for our Gnostic (as for other Gnostics), Jesus cannot have been born of a woman (in spite of the fact that Paul says he was – Galatians 4:4). Of course it is possible that like some Gnostic teachers he held that while Jesus was born of a woman, the spiritual Christ descended upon him at the time of his baptism; the Naassenes believed that the threefold being descended upon Jesus. In any event, the one not born of woman is to be worshipped, since he is the (heavenly) Father. This conclusion seems to reflect the words of John 14:9: ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father’ (cf., John 10:30: ‘I and the Father are one’).” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 135).
• F. F. Bruce writes: “But for the last clause, we might have interpreted this saying to mean that Jesus – unlike John the Baptist (cf. Saying 46) – was not born of woman. But whatever the compiler or editor believed about the mode of Jesus’s coming into the world (see Saying 19a), this is probably not in view here, since Jesus and the Father are distinguished (cf. Saying 3). Even so, he would no doubt have drawn his own conclusions from such a saying of Jesus as that of John 10.30: ‘I and the Father are one.’ The Father is in any case the unbegotten One.” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, pp. 119-120).
• Marvin Meyer says that “Manichaean Psalm Book 121,25-33 also declares an identity between the father and the one not of human birth” and quotes: “[I] hear that you are in your father (and) your father hidden in [you]. My Master. [When I say], ‘The son was [begotten],’ I [shall] find [the] father also beside him. My master. Shall I destroy a kingdom that I may provide a womb of a woman? My master. Your holy womb is the luminaries that conceive you. In the trees and the fruit is your holy body. My master Jesus.” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, pp. 75-76).

This is the extent of our available comments and reading these show us the extreme positions that are taken regarding the True nature of man; these commentators, like the doctrinally oriented men who comment upon the bible, see the Truth of man as this form in the world; they look no further. As regards this saying, they do not even look clearly but this is of course but our opinion. In the first comment there is little observation other than to say that this saying confirms somehow a later Christian or gnostic tradition; the observation on the Gnostic interpretation of God is not the subject of the saying and we should note that in the accepted gospels Jesus DOES equate himself as a matter of fact saying “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) and tells us that in our own perfection that we can be just as He is saying: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40). We of course understand that this perfection IS the goal and objective of every man and that this is the pinnacle of achievement for the True disciple. In the second comment Mr. Grant goes to similar sayings from the Apostle John’s Gospel and speaks about the Master’s saying regarding John the Baptist but none of this has aught to do with the nature of the saying from Thomas’ Gospel.

We could go on to discuss the other comments but this above should suffice to put our point; that the view of Life as what we can see and hear is the first obstacle that must be overcome to properly discern theses sayings from the Gospel of Thomas as well as our own accepted gospels and epistles. Doctrine may believe that they have this all figured out but they are lost in their own way of looking at Life. Many, if not most, believe in the spiritual part of Life after death as though it were produced along with the body and the personality at birth in this world; in this we can see that the shift to the greater reality is not that obtuse as to prevent the proper vision. There is spirit and there is flesh is the view of most and there ARE NO words in the New or the Old Testaments that clearly point to the doctrinal view as Truth and, while this may not be the way this is ALL planned, it is most surely why the Master teaches in parables.

This particular saying, while obscure, is simple and straightforward: “When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your face (and) worship him. That one is your Father.” There is no mystery in this as we come to understand that we WILL NOT “see one who was not born of woman” as this is the very nature of Life in form. We do not see spiritual things, we perceive them perhaps but we do not see them. We do not see angels save in visions and in dreams and we do not see God. The Apostle John, in the richness of the Prologue to his gospel, tells us that “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Here is a reality that IS beyond the Old Testament sayings of God appearing to this one or that as these too are in visions and dreams. And one may say that Moses saw God but there is a reality here that the Christian does not want to deal with and that is the relationship of Jehovah and God. God simply IS and the closest we ever come to this is through the God Within, the Soul which IS the True man which we do not see….but which we ARE.

In this saying above we have then the simple understanding that one CAN NOT see God and here we should recall the Master’s words that “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) and while the human imagination may have ways of depicting spirit, these are but imaginations. And we should not confuse the Master’s words to Phillip either as the comments above seem to do; here we read: “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:8-10). Here we should be able to clearly see that the Master’s reference is to the Father that is in Him and that this saying is clearly to the nature of the True man and a grand part of His teaching about it.

So then if we Truly do see one who was not born of a woman, a rather impossible feat in this world of men, then the Master tells us that we have Truly come upon the Lord.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	Way

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

Today’s quote of the day is a repeat of the Mantram of Unification which is an affirmation of the Oneness of the human family from the perspective of the disciple and the aspirant and any who hold these ideals as important. In this we find the essence of the two ideas that we have discussed from Values to Live By and that these are firmly grounded in the desire to Love not hate; to serve and not exact due service and to heal and not to hurt. It is Love shown as Truth and justice that is at the heart of this mantram.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹⁴ The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/