IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 788

ON LOVE; PART CCCLXXVII

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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.

(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

Our purpose and perspective again in this discussion of the Gospel of Thomas is not that we believe it to be authentic nor that we wish to dispute with those who see this as heretical and Gnostic literature written as a forgery, it is to take these many words and compare them to two things. First to the accepted gospels, not only saying by saying but in regard to their intent and the teaching offered and second is to relate them to our own understanding which itself is a departure from the doctrinal view that those opposed to this text would likely call our words heretical as well. We should understand here that based upon the True definition of heretical, our words are in that class, they are: belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs, customs, etc. We should note here that the words of Christ were heretical as well as are the words on His apostles when seen against the prevailing doctrines of His day. However, this word heretical is not used in quite this way today; it is understood by the followers of a doctrine as that the words are lies and are deception based upon the pronouncement of one in authority in that doctrine. We do not agree with doctrine and the words of the Gospel of Thomas paint a different picture than do the interpretations of doctrine but our words are not lies nor deception and so far neither are those purported to be by the Apostle Thomas. The irony here is that much that is doctrine today is actually heretical when compared to the Truth of the Master’s words.

Our greater point here is that this information that we are providing by examining the words of the Master according to Thomas is interesting and it allows us greater understanding of the Master’s words from the accepted gospels and this is our purpose. When we can come to a better understanding of the Truth of Jesus teaching we are enriched by that understanding and a brief example of this is in the way that Thomas portrayed the Master’s teaching on little children which we are still discussing today; how that His words have naught to do with children per se but rather the nature of the child in the world, that this nature IS the same as the nature of the expression of the Soul in the world. Here there is no need then to mimic the child’s behavior but only to allow the Light of the Soul to become the expression of the man in the world and this of course by degree until it become  a man’s total expression in Life and he is then a disciple. This nature of the little child IS the nature of the disciple and of the man accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God.

Aside from the information we have the ever more important additional enlightenment gained in discussing these words and relating them to what we KNOW of the Master’s words. We should remember however that the overall idea of our blog is to change us through the proper understanding of the Words of Jesus, to change our focus to the reality of Love and in this Light the message from the Quote of the Day which we have left now for many days is our greater lesson and it is this Love that we should be learning to better express as we learn more about the Truth of the Master’s words.

Continuing with our discussion of the twenty second saying from the Gospel of Thomas we return to the idea of the little child as the Master yet again tells His disciples that the nature of the little child IS the nature of the disciple as well and here we can phrase this a bit differently than we have been showing. The little child is not yet polluted by the ways of the world, the desire nature has not yet come to bloom and the lusting after the pleasures of the world have not yet become the focus of the Life. The little child IS humble and innocent and unassuming; the little child is much like the Master tells us of Himself saying that “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29) which qualities encompass humble, innocent and unassuming and so much more as we discussed in In the Words of Jesus part 728 where we coined our own phrase or picture of the disciple: humble in thought, lowly of heart in attitude and meek in action. 

The Master tells His disciples again of the nature of the disciple as He compares this nature to the little child and here in this saying we get a better understanding of the age that is a little child; we should not get taken in by the rendering above as infants as the interlinear translates this as little ones and both Layton and Doresse agree as they render the same. The same Coptic word is used here as is used in saying eight and translated as little ones regarding fish and is rendered by most as small or little fish; this word is also rendered as a small or little child in the fourth saying where the reference is to one seven days old. For us then this IS NOT an infant but a small child and the idea that he is being suckled can give us greater insight into the relative age of a small or little child. While there are no biblical pronouncements on breastfeeding, the Koran says that the child should be breastfed until two years old and this is the common understanding yet today as promoted by the World Health Organization and we can likely assume that in the Master’s words about little children that this idea of suckling is intended to give some additional guidance. This idea works rather well in our view as we see that the idea of little children can only be in reference to those who are still humble, innocent and unassuming and it is around this age of two that the child’s own personality begins to be the evident; but all are different and the Master’s idea IS NOT in the age of the child but in his nature and this is the message. The Master is then asked what we ourselves see as an inappropriate question and, as we surmised in the last post, this may be by design although based in our view of the disciples, they are often confused and bewildered by the Master’s parabolic sayings and this relation to the little child is surely one of these. Nonetheless the question IS asked and the Master continues with a teaching of the nature of the man who IS accounted worthy and He does so in even more bewildering terms than the image of the little child.

Let us take these ideas one by one and try to discern some meaning as we KNOW that none are idle words:

• We start with the words that say: “When you make the two into one” and here we can likely see our own vision of duality. From our perspective duality is the affliction, if we can say it as such, of the aspirant and this perhaps continues into discipleship as all these spiritual ideas are by degree. This duality is caused by the man’s seeing the Light of the Soul as he begins to change his focus to the Christ Within and the things of God. In this unsteady state the man is yet in the world and attending to the daily Life as he continues in his mode of planning and scheming and the fulfillment of his desire for the pleasures of the world as he may individually define them. Here, the man’s focus is steadily drawn to the Good, the Beautiful and the True as seen in this new found Light but, since he is in the world, he is also attracted to the former worldly ways and those thoughts, attitudes and actions that he had become attached to. It is in the overcoming of this stage in one’s journey to the Kingdom that the Master refers to here; making the man seeing the world one day and then seeing God another be as one and, of course, one who is seeing God.
• This next part: “when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below” should have the same effect as we see above; here however the Master gives more understanding as we should see that from the inside, from the Christ Within, comes the Truth and the Love and the Power of the Soul and the reality here is that these qualities of Soul Life must be come the qualities of one’s Life in the world and this is of course our objective as aspirants which we accomplish by steadfast focus upon the Christ Within. Perhaps the idea of above and below are intended for those who cannot yet understand the idea of the Kingdom Within and the companion ideas of the Christ and the God Within. Here we should understand that the common understanding of heaven was above and the Kingdom the same and that from all perspectives the Master is addressing the need for the singleness of focus and of expression regardless of how one may perceive Life.
• The next part is the idea that is addressed by the comments that we reviewed and others that we did not as the Master says: “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“. We must remember that in all of these points there IS that parabolic nature of the Master’s way of teaching and that He seldom takes ideas such as these which we are discussing and gives them in a straightforward manner as He does when speaking about Love. In the first two parts above we should see the need to express the qualities of the Soul through form by eliminating the duality of one’s Life, by allowing the Inner man to shine forth and by letting the Kingdom above present itself in the Life below. ALL these are the ways of the Soul in the world and are as well the ways of the True disciple and the man accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. This next part expresses this same dynamic as the Soul, the True man, has no sex as we understand it; sex is only a factor in the human form Life in this world. Here we can see that as the fullness of discipleship flows through the form, that the realization then comes that this IS so and the idea of sexual difference fades. This is not to say that they no longer exist in the physical world as they surely do but that this takes on new understanding in the thoughts, attitudes ans actions of the disciple and the aspirant. And it is not this difference only that fades, but ALL differences as we read in Paul’s words that were highlighted for us by some of the commentators; he says: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). This is the standing Truth, that as one approaches the reality of discipleship and the Kingdom, these differences and ALL differences fade….they become as meaningless. The disciple sees all men as his brothers and sees the unity of ALL as Souls expressing divinity through form, or as their being somewhere on the Path to this goal.
• This last part is the the more confusing as it says: “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]“. If we can see the preceding ideas as that they are presented to show that the things of the world and one’s focus upon them will not bring a man into the Kingdom and can see these ideas here as a continuation of those thoughts we can likely see that the resolution here is the same as the Master offers us in the accepted gospels. From the perspective of the Soul the focus upon the world is an offence from the perspective of the spiritual progress of the man and this whether he KNOWS this to be True or not as the Soul is ever in the Kingdom. The objective that we have as disciples is to bring that sense into the Life that we have in the world, to Transform that Life from the ways of the world to the ways of God. In this Light making the two into one as in the first point is this Transformation as IS allowing the Inner Life of the Soul to be expressed in the outer Life of the man in the world thereby eliminating the material desires in the unity of the inner and the outer or the above and the below. Here too is the idea of the unity of the sexes; from the perspective of the Soul there IS NO division by sex; in the divine Life there is only the reality of Life itself and the conscious awareness of the individual in relation to the whole. In these views we can see the further teaching that there is no reality to the hand or the foot or the eye or the image that one may see of these parts of the physical body in the world; these are of no meaning and of no consequence in the Truth of the man who IS the Soul. We can see in these ideas the teaching of the Master in the accepted gospels:
  • “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out , and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30). In these words from the Sermon on the Mount the Master is telling us that these body parts do not matter when weighed against the Truth of the Kingdom and here He offers these words between the ideas of adultery as caused by looking lustfully after the opposite sex and the idea of divorce which is ofttimes caused by such lustful looking.
  • The importance of this idea of the offence caused by the eye or the hand is seen in the fact that the Master repeats these words further on in the Matthew’s Gospel saying: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire” (Matthew 18:8-9). Here the Master expands the thought to include the foot and here He offers these words between sayings regarding the nature of the little child and the reality of the treatment of the little ones as He says: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10) and, based upon our discussions over the last several days, can we be sure that this reference is not to the disciples as well?

While there is no direct link between these words from Matthew’s Gospel and those from Thomas’, we should be able to see that there is a relationship in thought and intent if not in context and in word. Both can be seen to say that the eye or the hand or the foot are of no significance and that they should be replaced in the Life of the disciple by the divine understanding of the Soul, the Christ Within, and that the inner correspondences to these ideas should prevail and this is seen most profoundly in the idea of image; that one should see himself as he Truly is and not as he appears to be.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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/