ON LOVE; PART CDLXXII
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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.
(96) Jesus [says]: “The kingdom of the Father is like [a] woman. She took a little bit of yeast. [She] hid it in dough (and) made it into huge loaves of bread. Whoever has ears should hear.“
(97) Jesus says: “The kingdom of the [Father] is like a woman who is carrying a [jar] filled with flour. While she was walking on [the] way, very distant (from home), the handle of the jar broke (and) the flour leaked out [on] the path. (But) she did not know (it); she had not noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down on the floor (and) found it empty.“
(98) Jesus says: “The kingdom of the Father is like a person who wanted to kill a powerful person. He drew the sword in his house (and) stabbed it into the wall to test whether his hand would be strong (enough). Then he killed the powerful one.“
(99) The disciples said to him: “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.” He said to them: “Those here, who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will enter the kingdom of my Father.“
(100) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him: “Caesar’s people demand taxes from us.” He said to them: “Give Caesar (the things) that are Caesar’s. Give God (the things) that are God’s. And what is mine give me.“
(101) “Whoever does not hate his [father] and his mother as I do will not be able to be a [disciple] of mine. And whoever does [not] love [his father] and his mother as I do will not be able to be a [disciple] of mine. For my mother […], but my true [mother] gave me life.” 14
In the last essay we began our discussion of the ninety ninth saying from the Gospel of Thomas along with some of our thoughts on the idea of Human Rights Day and most importantly that from our perspective every day IS Human Rights Day as we go about our business expressing that Love and GoodWill that the Master teaches us and which flows from our own Souls. There IS NO perfection in our expression of this Love, it is rather a work in progress and the result of our striving toward that sacred goal of which the Master tells us as He says: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This IS our objective and our goal as Souls living in this world and we should try to see that this perfection is not a feat that we must perform, it IS rather the result of our striving, the result of keeping His words; it IS this perfection that brings us to our more stated goal of attaining the Kingdom of God; it is here in this perfection that one is accounted worthy. While this may seem to be an impossible accomplishment, it IS NOT as if it were the Master would not tell us that this IS what we should DO. It is however difficult; it is difficult to completely control the carnal ways of the self in the world, it is difficult to “take no thought” (Matthew 6:25), but we should understand that our success in found in our striving, striving to keep His words and it IS in so doing that we can find the Truth of His words that tell us “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (Matthew 13:12).
We should note here that this saying is offered to us in the context of the mysteries of Life, the mysteries of the Kingdom, and here should be our understanding from a practical perspective: to the man who is striving, those things that he is striving for will grow and will grow continually into the greater abundance but to the man who IS not, even what little he may have will vanish from his view as his focus remains on the self and the self in the world. Of course this is a parabolic saying that is explaining a parabolic saying to His disciples but we should be able to see the converse here as well; in our statement above we are looking at the spiritual part and striving toward that goal and here we see that that part will grow by our attention to it, our focus. Looking another way, we can see that by one’s focus upon the things of the world, that they will grow in one’s Life and the man who IS NOT so focused upon them will lose his part in them. Can we see the Truths in this saying? It is interesting to note the ideas offered by Christian commentary regarding the idea of being perfect as IS God and how these commentaries themselves inhibit a mans ability to Truly succeed and to focus upon the goal whereby “he shall have more abundance“; for comparison to our view we post some of these commentaries:
- Be ye therefore–rather, “Ye shall therefore be,” or “Ye are therefore to be,” as My disciples and in My kingdom. perfect–or complete. Manifestly, our Lord here speaks, not of degrees of excellence, but of the kind of excellence which was to distinguish His disciples and characterize His kingdom. When therefore He adds, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect–He refers to that full orbed glorious completeness which is in the great Divine Model, “their Father which is in heaven.” (Commentary Critical and Explanatory of the Whole Bible) 8
- Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father; This perfection is to be restrained to the subject Christ is upon, love to men, and not to be referred to any, or every other thing; wherefore, in ( Luke 6:36 ) it is, “be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful”; and regards not a perfection of degree in that, but objects and quality: that is to say, not that men may, or can, or ought to be as perfect in love, as to the degree of it, as God is; that is impossible: the “as” here, is not a note of equality, but of likeness: such, who profess God to be their Father, ought to imitate him, particularly in their love to men, which ought to be extended to the same objects, as the divine goodness is; that, as he shows regard in a providential way to all men, good and bad, just and unjust, and his tender mercies are over all his works; so ought they to love all men with a natural affection, and hate no man, no, not their enemies: for he that loves only his friends, and not his enemies, loves imperfectly; he does not take in the whole compass of objects his love is to extend unto; and as God loves sincerely, and without dissimulation, so should they. To be “perfect”, is to be sincere and upright: in this sense is the word often used, and answers to the Hebrew word (Mymt) , which signifies the same: see ( Deuteronomy 18:13 ) which is the passage Christ seems to refer to here; and the sense is, be ye sincere and upright in your love to all men, as your heavenly Father is hearty and sincere in his affections to them. (John Gill ‘s Exposition of the Bible).
Can we see here the inhibiting factor of Christian doctrine as it arbitrarily downplays the words of the Master according to its own view of the reality of His sayings. Here we can see what we have before said regarding this doctrinal practice which IS that these things are downplayed by the man in the world as his safe harbor, that place where he need not concern himself with these Truths that the Master offers. It is here that much of Christian world acts in the role of the Pharisee as they do not see the reality in His word to them saying: “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). Our point here is that we should see through this doctrinal approach to God and seize the reality of His words and, of course, this is the very purpose of this blog; to see the Truth through our own eyes and in the Light of our own Soul. We ARE NOT dissuaded by the difficulty nor by the prospect of the impossibility as we understand that in striving that we will accomplish and, while we may not achieve that perfection, we will come closer than we are today as the realities of the Kingdom of God grow within us. Here we find the Truth of another of the Master’s sayings which we used in the last essay from Thomas Gospel and which IS repeated several times in the accepted Gospels: “He-who-has-ear of-him, let- him-listen” (Thomas 96:3). Here in this Interlinear version we have an added idea hidden as we alluded to in the last post; here there is the extra use of the idea of him which constructs the saying along the thought that it IS referring to the one who has the ear of God, as understood as the reality of one’s own Soul. Here in this construction of sentences from the Coptic this may make little sense and actually seem an error but if we look at this from our perspective we can see a greater reality and this in either way this may be constructed. To have the ear of the Soul can refer to hearing as the Soul hears or it can refer to hearing what is coming from the Soul and in either way this can be seen as our Truth: whoever can hear what is coming in that Wisdom from above, LET HIM LISTEN. While the context here IS in regard to the growth of the Kingdom of God we should understand its application in ALL things.
This brings us back to the idea where we started, Human Rights Day. Can we hear from our own Souls the righteousness found in Right Human Relations as this IS reflected in the words of the Master? Can we understand that by our expression of this Love that we are able to gain the greater ability to express more and understand more? Can we see how the nature of the doctrinal downplaying of the Master’s words can and likely does inhibit the average man’s appreciation and understanding of this expression of Love? And, can we see how that it IS in striving toward the stated goal ,that we move forward in this expression and in our own progress toward its fulfillment. And can we see that a great part of the reality of the current saying that “Those here, who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will enter the kingdom of my Father“.
Here is the Master, our Lord, telling us rather clearly that the idea of the mother or the brethren does not matter in one’s spiritual pursuit of the Kingdom of God which IS accomplished by one’s ability to “do the will of my Father“, which Will includes these words and which we can relate to these other sayings that have the same singular idea behind them:
- “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).
- “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).
We should see here the relationship of these ideas regarding family; that they are secondary to the Truth of one’s spiritual reality and in the sayings above regarding discipleship and being accounted worthy we should see that these relationships should not even be considered; that while they are important from a worldly perspective, they are by a part of the world. Now this DOES NOT conflict with the idea offered in the Ten Commandments which says succinctly “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12) as it IS one’s duty to honor ALL men, to Love ALL men and while special allowance is made by Jehovah through Moses, it is made with a purpose. The Apostle Paul writes about this commandment that we should: “Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6:1-7); we should understand here that the latter part IS the promise as expressed in the Old Testament. Perhaps in keeping this word as a man in the world this reward IS True but this IS not the express instruction of the Master to the man who would overcome the world; to us as aspirants and disciples….our reality IS greater. And we should add here another saying from Jesus that tells us about the Kingdom and the Father’s Will; the Master says: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). In this saying ALL of the pretense that a man believes can put him in touch with the Lord is broken down into the reality that there IS BUT ONE WAY which IS to keep His words.
Here we must understand His words that tell us of the reality of those who should be and ARE closest to Him, that they are those who keep His words and behind this ALL we see the ultimate Truth that parents and brethren are not such from the perspective of the Soul who IS one with ALL men and must come to see this reality as a part of the journey to the Kingdom of God. Here we should see the Truth that ALL men, those related and close as well as those far away and strangers, ARE Souls living through form and from this perspective ALL are to be seen the same, ALL are to be Loved and ALL are to be honored equally. In this saying from Thomas and the synoptic gospels regarding the Master’s attitude toward family plus the sayings above on discipleship and being accounted worthy regarding the same, we should be able to see the ultimate Truth in that saying from James that tells us: “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9). And this we should see as our personal reality as it relates to the Nature of God which we read as: “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) or as this is alternately framed by Paul: “For there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). And it IS into this framework that we must put Human Rights and our practice of this as Right Human Relations which is found in our expression of GoodWill which IS Love in action.
Our next saying, the one hundredth, is another that we find in the synoptic gospels although here in Thomas’ Gospel there IS an added twist. Most all of the translations say much the same thing except for the original version of the Interlinear which we post here along with Patterson and Robinson and the later Interlinear:
- “They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him: “Caesar’s people demand taxes from us.” He said to them: “Give Caesar (the things) that are Caesar’s. Give God (the things) that are God’s. And what is mine give me.“” (Patterson and Robinson).
- “They showed IS88 a gold piece, and said they to him this: those who belong to Caesar, they demand of us the taxes. Said he to them this: give the things of Caesar to Caesar, give the things of God to God, and that which mine is give (it to me) (Interlinear; revised version). There is a note at the end here that says: lit., “he who (is mine) give (him to me)“.
- “They-showed-JS88 a-coin, and said-they to-him this: “Those-who-belong to-Caesar, they-demand of-us -the-taxes.” > Said-he to-them this: “Give-that-of-Caesar to-Caesar, > give-that-of-(the)God to-(the)God, and he-who-mine is, give-to-me(him)” (Interlinear Version; original).
The confusion here is found in the added part that IS not found in the synoptic versions which read as:
- “Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way” (Matthew 22:17-22).
- “And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him” (Mark 12:14-17).
- “And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly: Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no? But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said , Caesar’s. And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s. And they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace” (Luke 20:21-26).
The ideas presented in the synoptics are more complete and include the context of the question and the reasoning for the question and here the idea of the questioner is undefined. In Thomas’ however we get no such information although we can assume from the text that it IS His disciples that are asking the Master this question. Here again we should note that this may just be the way that this is recalled by Thomas and that this part has no True bearing on the parable itself which is about the coin and to whom those things of the world belong. Here, before we proceed, we should note how in Mark and Luke the questioners acknowledge the reality of the idea of “God is no respecter of persons” as this is expressed by them saying in effect that such regard for persons would be contrary to “the way of God in truth” according to Mark. This is not said in regard to these ideas of the coin but in regard to the Master’s previous teaching. The available commentary on this saying from Thomas’ Gospel includes:
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “The complexities of Jesus’s discussion of the tribute money in the gospels (Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26) are left behind as Thomas relegates what belongs to Caesar and to God to a place of inferiority, compared with the inner man, who belongs to Jesus. Note that God seems to be inferior to Jesus; see Saying 31 [30] and Commentary.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 189).
- R. McL. Wilson writes: “Grant and Freedman rightly note that Thomas does not speak of the kingdom of God, and that indeed ‘God’ is mentioned only once (logion 100), and there evidently as subordinate to Jesus. Their inference that Thomas may be reserving the name ‘God’ for use as that of an inferior power is also probably correct, and serves to confirm the Gnostic character of the book; as already noted, the God of the Old Testament is in the Gnostic systems degraded to the status of creator and ruler of this present evil world.” (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, p. 27).
- F. F. Bruce writes: “This is the incident of the tribute money recorded in Mark 12.13-17 and parallels, but the historical setting is a thing of the past and the silver denarius has become a gold coin. What is specially important, however, is the addition of ‘give me what is mine’ to the canonical saying. ‘God’, who is thus placed higher than Caesar but lower than Jesus, is not the Supreme Being who is always called the Father in the Gospel of Thomas, but the demiurge, the creator of the material world. Like Caesar, he must receive his due, but it is more important to give Jesus, the unique revealer, his due.” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 149).
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “The logion has a parallel in Mark 12.13-17 parr. In contrast to the Synoptics, it is the disciples and not the opponents of Jesus who show Jesus a coin; this represents a further development. The whole logion has its climax in v. 4, which is without parallel in the Synoptics. Evidently ‘Jesus’ expects of his disciples their own offering, i.e. in the framework of the Gospel of Thomas, that they should be aware of their own sparks of light and thus become one with Jesus, the personification of light (cf. 77.1-3; 108.1-3).” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 638).
- Helmut Koester writes: “In this brief chria of the Gospel of Thomas all of the narrative and discourse sections are missing which tie the Markan parallel to the context of Mark 12 where various people come to Jesus in order to trap him. Thomas preserves what must have been the basis of the elaborate exchange in Mark’s extended apophthegma. The last phrase in Thomas (‘and give me what is mine’), on the other hand, is a later expansion emphasizing the commitment to Jesus.” (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 112).
The ideas behind some of this commentary is bewildering as we do not see the idea that they present, that Jesus is making Himself superior to God and, while Mr. Bruce has somewhat of an explanation of this in introducing ‘another god’, we can only understand his point as it regards the supposed Gnostic idea of Jehovah. It is interesting that contrary to the transactions that we have, Grant and Freedman seem to agree with the Interlinear as regards this last part as they reflect upon the ‘inner man’. While we do not know much about the Gnostic systems of belief, especially in that day, we can see the tendency of these commentator to not see Thomas’ words as they do the accepted gospels. From our view, we should try to see this as we see the synoptic versions as the reality of the division between the things of the world and the things of God IS the same and we should try to see the idea at the end in the personal tone of the original Interlinear which gives us the idea that Jesus wants only those WHO ARE HIS. We close today with this from the Gospel of John which we can relate to this last idea:
“I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them” (John 17:6-10).
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 are using yet another mantram as our new Quote of the Day and this is again one that we have posted many times. Here in the form of an affirmation we should be able to understand the intent which IS to make these realities as part of our everyday thinking and our everyday understanding of our nature. Here again, as we see in our words above on the Mantram of Unification, we have the same dynamics: Love, service and healing. Here however the motivation IS more upon the idea of service and when we can see that this service is offered in Love and that this service IS one of healing we can Truly understand this affirmation.
Affirmation of the Disciple
I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focussed within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand
I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And thus I stand.
And standing thus, revolve
And tread this way the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.
And thus I stand.
From previous posts we repeat that today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
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/
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
