ON LOVE; PART CCCLXXX
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
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.
(22) Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples: “These little ones being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.” They said to him: “Then will we enter the kingdom as little ones?” Jesus said to them: “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below – that is, to make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female will not be female – and when you make eyes instead of an eye and a hand instead of a hand and a foot instead of a foot, an image instead of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom].“
(23) Jesus says: “I will choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand. And they will stand as a single one.”
(24) His disciples said: “Show us the place where you are, because it is necessary for us to seek it. He said to them: “Whoever has ears should hear! Light exists inside a person of light, and he shines on the whole world. If he does not shine, there is darkness.”
(25) Jesus says: “Love your brother like your life! Protect him like the apple of your eye!” 14
In the last essay we discussed the twenty fourth saying from Thomas’ Gospel and found that it worked well with the Master’s other sayings on Light; we must try to understand here that most of these sayings are directed at His disciples and the this one from Thomas’ is among these. Sayings like “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14) should be seen as it is the disciple who IS such Light and at the same time as an admonition to those who would be disciples that they “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Here we should see that while this Light IS in ALL men, it is not shining in ALL men but only in those who are doing these “good works“. From the perspective of the Christ Within, a perspective that one must construct from the various sayings of the Master, we read this from the Prologue to John’s Gospel:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:1-9).
We have addressed these words many times but today’s perspective is on Light and the way that this is presented by the apostle. We are seeing here the idea of God as that Cosmic Being and that Aspect of God, the Son or the Christ, that has ever been. In previous posts we discussed how the Christ or the Son was primary in the very act of manifestation of ALL things and while we cannot understand this, we accept it as the Truth as the Christ IS an Aspect of God and there is a created Universe. We should understand here that in these two verses we cannot expect to find the total reality of this endeavor and from here the apostle goes right to the idea of Life and of man. Looking at the apostles words and our chart below we can see two things; “In him was life” which we can understand as the Life that IS and the Will of God, the WILL TO BE and we can see as well that this Life that is in the Christ is at the same time “the light of men” and here we can clearly see the Trinity of God if we look closely. In these words we should try to understand the True man and not the phenomenal man in the world as the body IS NOT the man. In this we can see the reality that the Christ IS Life, He IS the Life and He IS the Light and if we can bring this down to the level of man we can see as well the Christ Within as the Christ IS “the light of men“. From here we can bring this into the world by way of the change of the topic to John the Baptist and the apostles saying that the Baptist bore witness of the True Light “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world“. Again here we have the Christ Within and while doctrine may glorify these ideas in a religious way, the fact IS that this Light which IS the Christ “lighteth every man“. We should remember here that from our perspective this Light IS the Holy Spirit, the activity of the Christ in the Soul and the activity of the Christ Within the man in the world by his realization which is accomplished by his focus and “good works”.
This is the nature of the Light of which the Master speaks and it IS the display of the man whose focus IS upon the things of God; it IS his expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul. And this is the idea in the Master’s saying from Thomas’ Gospel as He tells His disciples that “Light exists inside a person of light, and he shines on the whole world“; here the person or the man of Light is the disciple who so shines and it IS in this context that He says as well that “If he does not shine, there is darkness“. In this regard we saw the idea of our duality in our essay yesterday and this is likely a factor in this idea of shining or not as this depends on the focus of the man moment to moment. Perhaps the greater idea here is the actual answer to the question that IS asked, that He show them “the place where you are“. Can we see the answer being that He IS in discipleship, He is in the display of Light by “good works” and that this must the the constant role of the disciple so that there IS NO darkness, there IS only Light as it IS poured forth into “the whole world“.
As we leave this saying we should note that there is a fragment of this found in the Greek language text that we were referring to for some of the earlier sayings that we covered. The fragment here is much too small to be of any use but there are some more complete fragments covering some of the upcoming sayings. Our next saying is a simple message of Love although this idea that we see is not found in the accepted gospels. There is no Greek fragment for this and we should note that the Interlinear Version renders the word apple as pupil and points out that this is the only use of this Coptic word in the entire gospel. The rendering of this word does not effect the saying except perhaps by the idea of the severity of the protection. Since this is a short saying, let us look as the various translations.
- Jesus said, “Love your (sg.) brother like your (sg.) soul; guard him like the pupil of your (sg.) eye.” (Lambdin).
- Jesus said: “Love your brother as your soul; watch over him like the apple of your eye. (Blatz).
- Jesus says: “Love your brother like your life! Protect him like the apple of your eye!” (Patterson and Robinson).
- Jesus said, “Love your (sing.) sibling like your own soul; look out for that person like the apple of you eye.” (Layton).
- Jesus says: “Love thy brother like thy soul; watch over him like the apple of thine eye.” (Doresse).
- Jesus said, “Love your friends like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye.” (Patterson and Meyer).
- Said Jesus this: “Love your brother like your soul. Guard him like the pupil of your eye.” (Interlinear Version).
Aside from the rendering of pupil or eye we have the idea of soul which is rendered as Life by Patterson and Robinson which is our chosen translation above. If the Coptic is like the Greek and the Hebrew, the idea of Soul can be easily misplaced and here in this context the idea of Life, another ofttimes confusing word, seems to better fit. There are other instances of this world rendered as Soul in the Gospel of Thomas but none offer a definitive understanding that this is the right rendering. Since our understanding of the Soul is that it IS the Life of the form in the world and since here the conversation is directed as worldly action we will look at this as though it is properly rendered as Life although we may come to other ideas as we discuss these other sayings that use this word. Also, we will use the idea of pupil as we see this as the more pertinent idea and, while this idiom is used in the Old Testament by some as well, the Hebrew definition is: pupil, the black center of the eyeball, formally, the “the little man (of the eye),” often translated as “the apple of the eye,” an idiom of care and love 2*. The idiom in modern parlance means: Someone who is cherished above all others and this idea will work with the saying as well but the idea of pupil is much more personal and a thing that one would surely protect without emotional attachment. We will look at this then as saying: “Love your brother as your Life. Guard him like the pupil of your eye.
The comments on this saying include:
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “This verse [2] does not occur in the New Testament. However, the mode of expression does have parallels in the Old Testament: Deut. 32.10; Ps. 17.8; Prov. 7.2.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 603).
- Marvin Meyer writes: “Gospel of the Hebrews 5 has the savior say, ‘And never rejoice except when you look upon your brother with love,’ and Didache 2:7 commands that ‘some you shall love more than your soul.'” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 81).
- R. McL. Wilson writes: “As Grant and Freedman say, this is ‘purely jewish,’ and Leipoldt and Guillaumont had already drawn attention to the Semitism involved in the use of ‘as thy soul’ for ‘as thyself.’ Quispel finds a parallel in the Person Diatessaron. All the biblical passages have ‘they neighbor,’ but ‘brother’ occurs in Leviticus xix. 17; the one ground for hesitation over ascribing this saying to early and good tradition is that for Thomas ‘thy brother,’ in the words of Grand and Freedman, ‘means not an Israelite or another human being, but another Gnostic.’ It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the scope of the saying has been deliberately narrowed. By an orthodox Christian it would, of course, be understood in the New Testament sense, but if Jesus were known to have quoted Leviticus it is difficult to account for the change. This may serve to remind us that the same words might be very differently interpreted in orthodox and in Gnostic circles.” (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, pp. 113-114)
The first comment here is specific to the idea of the idiom while the second sees this idea in another apocryphal text. The final comment seems to want to claim that this is a Gnostic text while offering the appearance that he is looking at this undecided. It should be a common Christian understanding that these ideas of brother and neighbor and even stranger should be seen in the same way and this made clear in the words of the Old Testament from which the Master extracted the single line that “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18) and perhaps because in this word neighbor, ALL men are considered. It is from this Book of Leviticus that the Master does quote and it is in this Book of Leviticus that we find all three of those ideas of persons for which we say the neighbor, the brother and the stranger who qualifies as both:
- “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him“
- “Thou shalt not avenge , nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD“
- “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:17, 18, 34).
And this is how we should see this idea from Thomas’ Gospel as well; that the brother mean the neighbor and the stranger as well and this we find clearly in the Apostle Matthew’s Gospel as we read in the chapter that begins with the words: “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples” the Master’s instruction that “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren” (Matthew 23:1, 8). It is only in the efforts of men to dilute this Truth that we find the separation into segments of this totality of the neighbor as to being close, or the brother as a fellow Christian and the idea of stranger is never used. Here in our subject saying, we should see the idea of brother as ALL encompassing; we should see this in the broadest way as this is the Way of God despite the ideas of men that desire to restrict this Truth.
And the Master’s words according to Thomas are extra strong as not only is there the idea of Love but there is also the idea of protection, that one would give his own eye rather than to see his brother harmed. This is of course a difficult saying as there are men in this world who will and who do harm our brothers every day and it is likely that the Master does not mean that the disciple should go out and fight with ALL who would inflict harm but rather that this should be our every day thought of Love. That we should see our brothers in this way and come to their aid when it is prudent to do so as this idea of protection and guarding IS NOT ONLY in reference to physical harm but to ALL kinds of harm which we can see in Jesus’ examples of our expression of Love for Him through our expression of our Love for “the least of these my brethren” as He tells us that we should do for them as we would do for Him: I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me” (Matthew 25:40, 35-36). And perhaps we can see this as well in the Light of the Master’s words on who we should Love as He tells us: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Here as well we should see that the Master is not saying that we should go out and express this Love to enemies and the like to our own peril but rather that this should be our attitude and our everyday thought; that we Love ALL men with this Love that is based in our understanding that we ARE ALL the same, we are ALL Souls trying to express somewhat of that Love and Power that we ARE through a Life in this world. And it IS this expression that is the topic again of our Quote of the Day as we show GoodWill to ALL as the Way.
In this understanding there is little difference except in the way of expression between the Love that the Master speaks of in Thomas’ Gospel and our own ideas of Love which we again state as:
Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these“
(Mark 12:30-31).
We ask ourselves WHAT THEN IS LOVE?
In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.
We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“
(Matthew 7:12)
This IS Love and this is the Love that is intended in every scripture that uses the name of God or of Christ; there IS NO other meaning.
Our next selection of sayings from Thomas Gospel are:
(26) Jesus says: “You see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye, but you do not see the beam that is in your (own) eye. When you remove the beam from your (own) eye, then you will see clearly (enough) to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”
(27) “If you do not abstain from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not make the Sabbath into a Sabbath, you will not see the Father.”
(28) Jesus says: “I stood in the middle of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found all of them drunk. None of them did I find thirsty. And my soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their heart, and they cannot see; for they came into the world empty, (and) they also seek to depart from the world empty. But now they are drunk. (But) when they shake off their wine, then they will change their mind.”
(29) Jesus says: “If the flesh came into being because of the spirit, it is a wonder. But if the spirit (came into being) because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has taken up residence in this poverty”
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 reprise here a Quote of the Day that we have not used for quite some time along with the scripture references and our original comments. There is no greater tool in our possession than to Love and there is no greater understanding of this Love as in our expression of GoodWill.
GOODWILL IS
LOVE IN ACTION
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12
If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: James 2:8
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Galatians 5:14
Our Quote of the Day is a stylized version of the footer that has been a part of this blog from the beginning. It is in a few words our motto and our slogan and as we have posted so many times, it is the method par excellence of bringing about a world in Peace and in Harmony. The words of the Master that accompany our motto here are the source for our understanding of GoodWill and our method of practice and the words of His apostles are their echo of the second part of the Greatest Commandment as enunciated by the Christ. Let us all strive to do our part for in so doing we are doing as the Master instructed; we are striving to enter at the strait gate into His Glorious Kingdom.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2* Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
