ON LOVE; PART XDIV
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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.
(40) Jesus says: “A grapevine was planted outside (the vineyard) of the Father. And since it is not supported, it will be pulled up by its roots (and) will perish.“
(41) Jesus says: “Whoever has (something) in his hand, (something more) will be given to him. And whoever has nothing, even the little he has will be taken from him.“
(42) Jesus says: “Become passers-by.“
(43) His disciples said to him: “Who are you to say this to us?”….”Do you not realized from what I say to you who I am? But you have become like the Jews! They love the tree, (but) they hate its fruit. Or they love the fruit, (but) they hate the tree.”
(44) Jesus says: “Whoever blasphemes against the Father, it will be forgiven him. And whoever blasphemes against the Son, it will be forgiven him. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither on earth nor in heaven.“
(45) Jesus says: “Grapes are not harvested from thorns, nor are figs picked from thistles, for they do not produce fruit. A good person brings forth good from his treasure. A bad person brings (forth) evil from the bad treasure that is in his heart, and (in fact) he speaks evil. For out of the abundance of the heart he brings forth evil.“14
In the last essay we ended our look at the forty fourth saying from the Gospel of Thomas by saying that we do not understand the intent of these words while noting that neither do those who purport to KNOW as we see in the various commentaries on this verse and the like verses from the synoptic gospels. That there is a meaning is sure as there are no idle words uttered by the Master and at the same time we CAN NOT understand how in this creation that is founded in the Love of God, in the Love that IS God, there could be anything that is unforgiven. Perhaps there is that which is not forgiven as an offence in by the man in the world as this would be reconciled by the Soul, but this is not how this is worded, it is worded as though there IS absolutely NO forgiveness. Adding this to the very idea of this unforgiveness being based upon words against the Holy Spirit, which words we do not KNOW, only adds to our confusion and if this could be construed as speaking against the Spirit of God, then many, many people are guilty. As we have said, the wranglings of doctrine are of no help here as they take literally this idea of NO forgiveness and some attribute the intent of these words to the fate of the Pharisees based of course in their own belief that the Pharisee and the Sadducee and the scribe and the priest were evil men in their disbelief of the presentation of the Master.
We did however take this opportunity to offer some of our own insight into the nature of the Holy Spirit as an Aspect of God and as a part of that Trinity that IS God and that IS man, as the True man, the spiritual man. And, we discussed as well our view of the reality of Life in this world, how it is not the focus of God and how that the Holy Spirit does not influence what happens on this Earth except though the Souls of men in form which is the only influence that God has over the limited free will of the human family. And so we end this with we just DO NOT KNOW the reality of this saying and that we believe that there is a hidden meaning to these words that we DO NOT yet see.
We also began our look at the forty fifth saying from Thomas’ Gospel and we noted that these are the same words, albeit a bit more convoluted, that we find in the synoptic gospels. Here again we have no context in Thomas version and we noted that in the versions by Luke and by Matthew there is a variety of contexts; in Luke this is a rather generalized part of the Sermon on the Mount and in Matthew it is split with one part addressing the idea of KNOWING others by their fruit and the other part following upon his version of these forty fourth saying from Thomas. Thomas and Luke put these ideas of fruit and treasure together as sayings and perhaps this is the better way for us to view them as in the end these words do all mean the same thing. Repeating Luke:
“For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:43-45).
There is no mystery in these ideas and the message is rather clear especially when this IS tied to the ideas from Matthew that the man in the world IS KNOWN by his fruit. It is in this idea that the whole of this takes its form as addressing the thoughts, attitudes and actions of men in the world. Hence a good man does not bring forth corrupt fruit which word we should relegate to the same ideas as sin and evil…..of the world and the self in the world, and this idea of corrupt goes far back into the Book of Genesis. Thomas here takes a different tact by staying in the realm of vegetation and he reports the Master’s words as saying that the unproductive thorns and thistles DO NOT produce fruit and likens this to unproductive men or men whose focus IS NOT on the things of God but upon themselves and the things of the world. Here Thomas tries to put into a single verse these same ideas from the Master that Luke spreads over two and that Matthew, although clearer, spreads over many.
The next part brings out the idea of treasure and of the heart and here there is much similarity among the three sayings as they all frame this the same way; the evil man’s fruit will be things evil, things of the world while the good man’s fruit will be good things, things of God and His precepts. ALL also take this into speach, into what a man will say and in this is the idea from the Master that one can tell a man; by what comes out of His mouth, one can tell what his treasure is. However, we should be careful not to attribute this only to speech as the context of them all is bringing forth good and evil; in Luke it is framed just this way, as good and evil, in Thomas we see this as good and evil treasure and in Matthew we find the idea of good and evil things. ALL of this should be seen the same and we should try to see this as covering ALL of the thoughts, the attitudes and the actions of a man which can generally be judged by the words that he may speak. This IS the simple message for both the man who reads this as regarding himself and others with whom he may interact and here we find the added emphasis that this IS ALL fruit; the words, the treasure, the things, ALL is fruit and, as we read elsewhere, it IS “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20); and , we should add here that it is by one’s own fruit that one can KNOW himself. As we leave this topic we should remind ourselves of what these words mean to us:
- Fruit is that which we produce in the world and this comes as the fullness of ALL one’s thoughts, attitudes and actions in the world. There is good fruit as in the fruit of the spirit and there is evil fruit which the Apostle Paul refers to as “the works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19).
- Treasure is what is important to a man as defined by what thoughts, attitudes and actions that he may attend to, the things that he focuses upon in his Life in the world. This idea of treasure and the idea of fruit are closely aligned as the fruit will much depend upon the treasure and at the same time one’s treasure will feed off of the fruit produced which is how a man will either grow in the Kingdom, better the Kingdom will grow in him, or that the man will grow in his attention to the self and the self in the world until such time as dissatisfaction may set in.
- Heart IS the consciousness of the man in the world which is fed by the treasure and produces the fruit. If a man attends to the things of the world, if this IS his focus, then this will be the treasure of His heart; conversely the man whose focus is upon the things of God, the man who attends to striving to keep His words, will find that these spiritual pursuits will fill his heart.
It is in these ideas that we should try to see the Master’s words about treasure and heart and fruit and it is in the completeness of thoughts, attitudes and actions that we should see the intent of these other clarifying words from Matthew’s Gospel as we read:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Of course we must see the fullness in these sayings by understanding the parabolic value, that this is not a literal presentation and this understanding should come from the reality that there ARE NO things that one could have as treasure in heaven where there are no thieves nor rust. Our spiritual treasure is our expression upon this Earth, it is the thoughts, the attitudes and the actions of the man who is striving toward the strait gate…..it is Love that colors ALL that we say and do. This is how we see these ideas and this is of course contrary to much of the commentary that we will find according to the doctrines of the churches; and, as example we present this from John Gill who in his Exposition of the Bible tells us this about the ideas presented in the Master’s words from Matthew above:
But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven; That is, either be concerned for, and seek after heavenly treasure, the riches of glory, the joys and glories of another world, which infinitely excel everything that is valuable on earth; and which can never be corrupted, or taken away: or rather, lay up your earthly treasures in heaven; that is, put them into the hands of God in heaven; and this is done, by liberally communicating to the poor; by which means men “provide themselves bags which wax not old, and a treasure in heaven that faileth not”, ( Luke 12:33 ) . They shall never want any good thing here, and they “lay up in store for themselves, a good foundation against the time to come”, ( 1 Timothy 6:18 1 Timothy 6:19 ) . This is the way to have worldly treasure secured from moth, rust, and thieves; for to lay it up in heaven with God, to give it to him, to his poor, to make use of it for his glory, is to lay it up in a place……For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also; This seems to be a proverbial expression, and contains in it another reason, dissuading from worldly mindedness; because of the danger the heart is in of being ensnared and ruined thereby: and the sense of it is, if your treasure is on earth, and lies in earthly things, your hearts will be set upon them, and be in them, in your bags, your coffers and storehouses; and so your souls will be in danger of being lost; which loss will be an irreparable one, though you should gain the whole world. But if your treasure is put into the hands of God, your hearts will be with him, and be settled on him; your desires will be after heavenly things; your affections will be set on things above; your conversation will be in heaven, whilst you are on earth; and that will be the place and seat of your happiness, to all eternity 8.
We do not understand this concept of putting one’s treasure into the hands of God except as a way to make it acceptable to a man that he has treasure. Perhaps the idea here would better be to “take no thought” (Matthew 6:24) which follows a few verses down. And should we not see the ideas presented by the Master in the reference here to Luke as that we should be giving it ALL away and not just liberally communicating to the poor? And again we should see that these versed from Luke follow upon that same saying of “take no thought” (Luke 12:22) and all of the Master’s explanatory words about this precept. We read in Luke that: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:32-34).
Our next group of saying from the Gospel of Thomas are:
(46) Jesus says: “From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women there is no one who surpasses John the Baptist so that his (i.e., John’s) eyes need not be downcast. But I have also said: ‘Whoever among you becomes little will know the kingdom, and will surpass John.’”
(47) Jesus says: “It is impossible for a person to mount two horses and to stretch two bows. And it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters. Else he will honor the one and insult the other. No person drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine. And new wine is not put into old wineskins, so that they do not burst; nor is old wine put into (a) new wineskin, so that it does not spoil it. An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, because a tear will result.“
(48) Jesus says: “If two make peace with one another in one and the same house, (then) they will say to the mountain: ‘Move away,’ and it will move away.“
(49) Jesus says: “Blessed are the solitary ones, the elect. For you will find the kingdom. For you come from it (and) will return to it.“
(50) Jesus says: “If they say to you: ‘Where do you come from?’ (then) say to them: ‘We have come from the light, the place where the light has come into being by itself, has established [itself] and has appeared in their image.’If they say to you: ‘Is it you?’ (then) say: ‘We are his children, and we are the elect of the living Father.’If they ask you: ‘What is the sign of your Father among you?’ (then) say to them: ‘It is movement and repose.’”
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.
We repeat here a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.
My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love.
All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God; that Holy Will requires that all men serve.
And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
