ON LOVE; PART CDLVII
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
The Gospel of Thomas
These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
(82) Jesus says: “The person who is near me is near the fire. And the person who is far from me is far from the kingdom.“
(83) Jesus says: “The images are visible to humanity, but the light within them is hidden in the image. {} The light of the Father will reveal itself, but his image is hidden by his light.”
(84) Jesus says: “When you see your likeness you are full of joy. But when you see your likenesses that came into existence before you – they neither die nor become manifest – how much will you bear?“
(85) Jesus says: “Adam came from a great power and a great wealth. But he did not become worthy of you. For if he had been worthy, (then) [he would] not [have tasted] death.“
(86) Jesus says: “[Foxes have] their holes and birds have their nest. But the son of man has no place to lay his head down (and) to rest.“
(87) Jesus says: “Wretched is the body that depends on a body. And wretched is the soul that depends on these two.“
(88) Jesus says: “The messengers and the prophets are coming to you, and they will give you what belongs to you. And you, in turn, give to them what you have in your hands (and) say to yourselves: ‘When will they come (and) take what belongs to them?’” 14
In the last essay we went from what we can see as a statement of fact dressed in some obscurity in the eighty fifth saying from Thomas Gospel to a pretty much straightforward saying that is very similar to one from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in the eighty sixth saying. In the former is an observation by the Master regarding the reality of man in this world; here we can see both the individual Adam and the corporate adam as mankind; both come into the world from the Great and Awesome Power of God and this can be seen as the Universal God of Creation and as the individual God Within. Here the Universal is responsible for the onset of Life in form in the Earth while the individual is responsible for his own individual form that he brings to Life by the Power and richness of the God Within. Here we surmised that the Master is speaking of and to His disciples when he says that Adam and adam have not become worthy of them, of their divine status as disciples accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. And the moral here is that if Adam or adam had been worthy of discipleship as we KNOW the Master defines it, as his focus upon the things of God instead of the worldly focus of the human family, then this Adam or adam would NOT have caused this separation between the divine self and the carnal self lost in the world of form. It IS this being lost that is the death and it is the sin, it IS the worldly focus, that is the cause for losing one’s way. This IS the Life of man, of adam, in the world and we should remember here how the Apostle Paul paints this same picture for us in his words to the Romans:
“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21).
Here and in other sayings from the Master and His apostles we find the reality of Life and while it is painted by the Master in Thomas in different terms, the message IS the same although incomplete as in this particular saying where we learn ONLY of the fall of man into the world of illusion and glamour and not his extraction from this death which IS accomplished by one’s becoming as the disciple to whom the Master is speaking. We must remember here that these words are parabolic and that what we see, we see hidden behind the outer words. We should remember as well that in the final part of this saying the idea is clarified and taken from the idea of Adam, as IS assumed by most, to adam as mankind by the use of the word they which we found in the Interlinear and discussed in the last essay; we can read then the idea as ‘had they been deserving‘ in place of the translators choice of ‘had he been worthy‘. We should note as well that the word rendered as deserving in the Interlinear IS NOT the same Coptic word that is rendered as worthy by the translators and although the meaning is likely similar in intent, there IS a reason for this different usage which we do not yet see. This then is that saying which we see as as clear statement of fact hidden in the obscurity of parabolic language.
The other saying is much the same as we find in the synoptics and is from our perspective a straightforward saying that is not rightly understood by much of the doctrinal church which CAN NOT come to grips with the reality that the Master was a wanderer, without permanent address, without fixed domicile as one of our commentaries pointed out and which is attested to by much of the gospel narratives. It IS in this light that we should read His words that tell us that we should “take no thought” (Luke 12:22) and that we should forsake ALL to become His disciple. This is His point to the one who asks to follow Him; that the way is not easy from a worldly perspective, it is hard as both He and His follower have NO place in the world. However, hidden in these words is the reality of the spiritual Life of the one who Truly follows the Master as for him this idea of “take no thought” and the need to forsake ALL come naturally along with his focus on the things of God; these become as easy and this focus IS a function of following Him. The reality of this saying from Thomas IS the same as those ideas that we find in Luke and in Matthew and while these are lacking the context perhaps we can see that it is the idea of the saying that IS of importance and that for the follower, the aspirant and the disciple, there need be no context as the whole is understood, as least in Thomas’ understanding.
Our next saying, the eighty seventh is again one that is obscure at first glance and which has no equal in the accepted gospels. While the different translations are largely the same, there are some subtle differences that can perhaps help us to understand the meaning here:
- Jesus said: “Wretched is the body which depends on a body, and wretched is the soul which depends on these two” (Blatz).
- Jesus said, “Wretched is the body that depends upon a body. And wretched is the soul that depends upon these two” (Layton).
- He said, he, Jesus: “The body which depends on a body is unfortunate, and the soul which depends on these two is unfortunate!” (Doresse).
- Jesus said, “Wretched is the body that is dependent upon a body, and wretched is the soul that is dependent on these two” (Lambdin).
- Jesus says: “Wretched is the body that depends on a body. And wretched is the soul that depends on these two” (Patterson and Robinson).
- Jesus said, “How miserable is the body that depends on a body, and how miserable is the soul that depends on these two” (Patterson and Meyer).
- Said-he, viz-JS79, this: “a-wretched-one is-he, the-body which-depends on-a-body, and a-wretched-one is-she, the-\ -soul which-depends on-these, the-two“(Interlinear Version).
We should note here that this word wretched is only used here in this saying so that we get no help in understanding any other meaning for it; however, two of the translators chose to render this differently, one as unfortunate and another as miserable and we should explore these ideas as we proceed. We should note as well that the phraseology of the Interlinear is has a separation between the he that is the wretched and the body while the translations merge these ideas so that it is the body that is wretched. Let us look at the commentary on this obscure saying:
- Funk and Hoover point out that speculation about the relation of body and soul is presented in Gal 5:16-18, Rom 8:3-11, and John 3:6.
- Marvin Meyer quotes Macarius of Syria, Homily 1.11: “Damn (or, Shame on) the body whenever it remains fixed in its own nature, because it becomes corrupt and dies. And damn (or, shame on) the soul if it remains fixed only in its own nature and relies only upon its own works, not having communion with the divine spirit, because it dies, not having been considered worthy of the eternal life of divinity.” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 101).
- Jean Doresse writes: “No doubt this is to be explained by Luke IX, 57-60 and Matt. VIII, 21-2: ‘Let the dead bury the dead.’ In this case, ‘the body which depends on a body’ is a living person who, through care for earthly obligations, wishes to bury his dead person. ‘The soul which depends on these two’ is the soul of such a person, a living body depending on a dead body.” (The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, p. 377).
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “Since Saying 86 is a quotation from Matthew and Luke, we may expect that the present saying is related to something in the context those gospels provide (cf., Sayings 69-70). Indeed, it may well be a Gnosticizing interpretation of the mysterious words reported in Matthew 8:22 (Luke 9:60): ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead.’ All earthly ties must be broken, as in Sayings 80 and 110. So Doresse, page 194. To know the world is to find a corpse (Saying 57).” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 183).
- F. F. Bruce writes: “This cryptic saying (cf. Saying 112) disparages the mortal body, which is given birth from another body. It is best for the soul to be as independent as possible of bodily life.” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 145).
These commentaries are of no help in understanding this saying; the view that these are related to the continuation of the last saying in Matthew and Luke should be discounted as although the idea of a dead body is involved in this, the message and the lesson are totally different and there are two more sayings found in Luke that are following upon the ideas of the eighty sixth and not just the one mentioned. We read the Master’s complete words in this regard:
“And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said , Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:57-62).
While Matthew skips over the last part here Luke does not and we should see in All three of these sayings the idea of forsaking; first the warning from the Master that the way is hard and that one CAN NOT have any fond view of carnal living if he is to follow Him and then the reality of this forsaking as we see in the burial of the father and the bidding farewell. We should see ALL of these ideas in the Light offered by the Master’s instructions on discipleship and we should note as well that these to whom Jesus IS speaking have expressed their desire to follow Him and in Truly doing so IS the essence of discipleship. So we discount these ideas and that from Mr. Meyer’s as well as this is but another’s interpretation in the fourth century of some previous words offered. Part of Mr. Bruce’s comment does relate to our saying there insofar as the Soul being independent but this is taken from a wrong perspective as in Life in the world the Soul must per force work through the body nature. Funk and Hoover refer this saying to some of the ideas of the apostles which he unfortunately calls speculation. These are pronouncements of importance whether they apply to this saying from Thomas or not; we read:
- “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Galatians 5:16-18). These words are offered by the apostle just before he identifies for us what IS and what IS NOT the fruit of the Spirit. Here we should see Paul’s instruction to disciples and aspirants; that they focus upon the Spirit and in so doing that they will not fulfill the lusts, the desires of the flesh.
- “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be . So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:3-11). Here we have a rather lengthy dissertation on the separation of the Soul or the Spirit from the carnal nature, the body. Here again, the idea is on focus as to be either carnally minded or spiritually minded IS to define what one is attending to; the things of the world or the things of God.
- This last one is a very esoteric saying by the Master that does not really fit into the context of this saying from Thomas’ Gospel but which at the same time is yet another testimony to the role of focus as it is focus that will be the tell as to where one born and this word has little to do with that natural birth into the world in this context which is the Truth of being Born Again. The Master says: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).
None of this is of course speculation from our perspective and any who understand the very nature of scripture as it paints for us pictures of Truths that are ofttimes obnubilated by the very words that paint. That there is a separation here of Soul and form is for us a fact of Life in the world but this IS NOT one that is shared by many and the very nature of this idea is among the mysteries of that day as we KNOW from Paul’s writings that tell us these things. It IS this separation that we should take into this saying which in our own understanding can be seen in the greater vision of the Interlinear phraseology; that he, the conscious man in the world, is wretched, which we should understand in the complexity of this definition: Very miserable; sunk in, or accompanied by, deep affliction or distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief; calamitous; woeful; very afflicting 1 which paints for us a psychological condition and not a condition of the body itself. Here we should try to see this separation between the man in the form and the form and this interaction is Life in this world; but more, that there is the separation of the he and the Soul at the end of this saying as well which leaves us with the idea of the duality of the man in the world. In the he then is the personality who is reliant upon itself to live Life in the world; we have here that strange and mysterious combination of the consciousness, the essential he, and the personality, the vehicle for the expression of that consciousness, that essential he. This is a picture of the Life of the man in the world of men, the man whose focus IS upon himself as a conscious personality which is both the he as a body, the personality, and the he in the body as the consciousness itself. Can we see the point here? Going on then we have the wretched state of the Soul who is dependent upon this conscious personality as his expression of his Truth Life to the world. We close here for today with this from the Apostle Paul that gives us this idea of wretched along with the confusion of Life as the consciousness, the form and the Soul:
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:14-25).
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 we repeat the Mantram of Unification as our Quote of the Day and we should note the very Christian ideals that are embraced by these words; not the doctrinal Christian ideals but rather the ideals annunciated in the words of the Master and of His apostles. This idea of ONENESS IS a component part of the Love that the Master teaches as He tells us that we should Love ALL and this ideal is repeated by His apostles who clarify it and expand upon it in their pronouncement that we should NOT show respect to persons that we should not prefer one above another, and this of course includes groups of persons who may differ from us in color, in nationality, in religion….in any way. We are told this by the apostles who tells us that God DOES NOT show such favor to individuals nor to groups as we read that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) which IS here offered in the context that ALL are treated equally. There are several instances of this saying interweaved with the idea that we should Love our brother, our neighbor and one another as these ideas are framed and, with this stated concept of this respect, we should be able to glimpse what we have been preaching here in this blog and which is the Truer nature of this Love. We should understand that in our zeal to be among His disciples that we must pay keen attention to the totality of the Master’s words which tell us that we should “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) and it is in this reality that we should understand this idea of respect, that if this is the Way of God that it should be the way of man as well. And, if this were not clear enough, the straightforward words of the Apostle James helps us saying “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9).
This IS the greater Truth of this Mantram of Unification; that we understand the reality of our ONENESS, our essential Unity, that we Love as the Master teaches, that we allow the Inner man, the Soul, to be the controlling force in our lives; that we come to see the Truth, that we break down the walls of illusion and glamour and eliminate ALL things that separate us from the Truth and from each other. And that we Love and encourage that Universal Love which is our essential destiny by our own example and in ALL that we say and do.
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!
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
