ON LOVE; PART XDXXII

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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.

(58) Jesus says: “Blessed is the person who has struggled. He has found life.“

(59) Jesus says: “Look for the Living One while you are alive, so that you will not die (and) then seek to see him. And you will not be able to see (him).“

(60) <He saw> a Samaritan who was trying to steal a lamb while he was on his way to Judea. He said to his disciples: “That (person) is stalking the lamb.” They said to him: “So that he may kill it (and) eat it.” He said to them: “As long as it is alive he will not eat it, but (only) when he has killed it (and) it has become a corpse.” They said to him: “Otherwise he cannot do it.” He said to them: “You, too, look for a place for your repose so that you may not become a corpse (and) get eaten.“

(61) Jesus said: “Two will rest on a bed. The one will die, the other will live.” Salome said: “(So) who are you, man? You have gotten a place on my couch as a <stranger> and you have eaten from my table.” Jesus said to her: “I am he who comes from the one who is (always) the same. I was given some of that which is my Father’s.  I am your disciple! Therefore I say: If someone becomes <like> (God), he will become full of light. But if he becomes one, separated (from God), he will become full of darkness.“

(62) Jesus says: “I tell my mysteries to those who [are worthy] of [my] mysteries. Whatever you right hand does, your left hand should not know what it is doing.“

This IS United Nations Week 2013 and United Nations Day is on October 24; we read from their website this about the day:

UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being. 24 October has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly recommended that the day be observed by Member States as a public holiday.

Here in the United States this day is not recognized as a public holiday, in fact it is hardly recognized at all by any but those who are affiliated. Perhaps this is why the United Nations does not have the respect that it rightly deserves in America. Yet it does remain our best and perhaps only hope for World Peace and harmony and the ushering into being of a non-religious sense of GoodWill and brotherhood around the world. The United Nations IS, it must be remembered, the United States in combination with the other 192 member states and in many of these the full force of the United Nations is seen and felt as they ARE the subject of the GoodWill and brotherhood that the United Nations brings to bear. In another message from the United Nations website that covers United Nations Day we find this from the Secretary General:

“This year again, we saw the United Nations come together on armed conflict, human rights, the environment and many other issues. We continue to show what collective action can do. We can do even more. In a world that is more connected, we must be more united. On United Nations Day, let us pledge to live up to our founding ideals and work together for peace, development and human rights. “

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

The goals of the United Nation are, from our perspective, the goals of the Christ on a worldwide scale and the many men and women who work to achieve these goals ARE doing His work; in this idea we should try to see that they ARE the face of the United Nations and that they deserve and require our support, the support of ALL men who desire greater spiritual reality in their lives. The United Nations IS NOT a perfect organization and perhaps it will never be so but here we should remember that there are 193 different member countries representing the panoply of human expression. Every religion and culture, every color and national creed, every hope and every desire are found in this great world body and it is interesting here to note that among the furthest from understanding and appreciating the role of the United Nations in the world is the view of large segments of the Christian Church. Their antagonism is based in fear, the fear of a New World Order, the fear of a New World Religion and a fear that these rather imaginary ideas would usurp whatever power that they may believe that they have. Many see the anti-Christ in the United Nations and, as we KNOW this is but a misunderstanding and a misrepresentation of the words of the Master and of His apostles. On these ideas we leave this message and to the Christian World we leave these words from the Apostle John, from his great chapter on Love:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:18-21).

Christianity is the World’s Religion of Love and it should then be the world’s expression of Love as well. This the Master teaches us in those words that we present so often, His instructions on Love which ARE His words and His commandment and he compounds this ALL by telling us who would follow Him that: “If ye love me, keep my commandments……If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:15, 23). And these are His commandments:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

These ARE NOT just idle words uttered by the ONE the that the Christian sees as the World Savior, these ARE His commandments and these ARE NOT in parable, these ARE in plain and everyday language. We repeat here then again His words and the supporting words of His apostles who see the same vision of Love as does the Master and not the common vision of the many who seek to dilute and minimize these words to the convenience of their own desires.

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).

The Apostle Paul gives us much on Love; in this that follows he amplifies and elaborates on the Master’s words:

“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:8-10).

The Apostle James gives us similar instruction and understanding while pointing out for us that the meaning of Love can be seen in the fairness that we express in our dealings with others and in our ability to treat ALL men with the same Love; he tells us that:

“If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:8-9).

Finally we come to some of the most telling words on Love as it affects the Life of the man in form; they set forth for us the importance of Love as a way of Life; Paul tells us:

“But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-3,13; New King James Version).

THIS IS LOVE, THIS IS BROTHERHOOD AND THIS IS WHAT THE MASTER AND HIS APOSTLES TEACH!

Continuing our look at the Gospel of Thomas and the fifty seventh saying which completes the first half Thomas’ work, we should summarize here what we see in this saying from Thomas, a saying that is similar to Matthew’s version and which is considered an eschatological saying by many and which then casts Thomas’ version in the same light. As we discussed, we see that the apocalyptic view of this is misrepresented by doctrine based upon their own beliefs in these ideas as carried down from the Jewish traditions and which believe that they find support in the wording of the Master’s own interpretation of this parable from Matthew’s Gospel. We should understand here that the Master’s explanation IS a parable in itself and that the Truth is hidden even from His disciples to whom He says at the end of His words here “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear“. This idea IS missed by many and hence the strict view that this parable and its explanation are in regard to the end, to that judgement day of Christian doctrine. In our view here these ARE parables that can unlock the True realization of the Life of the man in the world; from the one perspective there is the idea that we, as other men, should not judge our brothers but should rather understand them and see that until the fruit is borne at harvest time, there is no telling the wheat from the tares and this same is True in our own lives; the Master tells us of ALL men that “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). Jesus does not say anything here except that it IS in the end that this is Truly measured and that it is measured by the Soul, the angel that IS the Soul of man. The ideas of the bundling and the burning are a part of the story and not of the moral of the story which is that looking out onto the field that IS the world, one CAN NOT tell the wheat from the tares or the darnel until that time of the harvest. In this parable the man in the world should take the idea first that it IS NEVER too late to change and second, as we see in so many other sayings, that the man should NOT waste his opportunities as he KNOWS NOT when his own end will be. It is only in the end, at the time of harvest, when the fruits are KNOWN and where one can see clearly the wheat from the good seed planted in the world by the Souls of men who have seen the Light and are focused upon the Truth, or see clearly the tares, the weeds or the darnel that is sowed by the personality of the man in the world whose focus is upon this lower side of Life. It IS their conscious activity that IS the fruit and it is either divine or it IS not and it IS only the divine that is accounted worthy of the Kingdom leaving ALL the rest as tares of varying degree in the field of the world today and then again tomorrow. Repeating Thomas’ version here again for clarity:

“The kingdom of the Father is like a person who had (good) seed. His enemy came by night. He sowed darnel among the good seed. The person did not allow (the servants) to pull up the darnel. He said to them: ‘Lest you go to pull up the darnel (and then) pull up the wheat along with it.’ For on the day of the harvest, the darnel will be apparent and it will be pulled up (and) burned.“

 There are many angles from which to view these words from the Master; we gave one in the last essay and another today and here we should realize that these views are essentially the same and that they differ only in that sense of degree that we see in the lives of men. In the end the parable tells us that there are men who bear fruit as wheat and that there are others that bear fruit as tares; the former are planted from the Kingdom of God, by the Souls of men who are focused on the Kingdom and who strive to keep His words, while the latter are planted by the ways of the world, by the personalities of men in the world who are focused on the self and the self in the world. This is the field; it IS the world of men where the tares are found among the wheat. It is at the time of harvest, the death of the individual if you will, that the angel, which idea we borrow from the Master’s explanation in Matthew, the Soul, the True man, IS the one who harvests, seeing the wheat as accounted worthy and the tares as NOT. Alternately we CAN see this as that the field IS the world of men where the tares are found among the wheat and that it IS the Kingdom of God, as the man, who harvests and finds the wheat as accounted worthy and the tares as NOT. Either way, this is the same thing.

The next saying, the fifty eighth is not found per se in the accepted gospels but is written as it is a Beatitude in the style of Matthew and Luke. There are several renderings of this and the key word used can change the entire understanding of this saying. The different versions ARE:

• Jesus said: “Blessed is the man who has suffered; he has found life” (Blatz).
• Jesus said, “Blessed is the person who has labored and found life” (Layton).
• Jesus says: “Blessed is the man who has laboured; he has found Life!” (Doresse).
• Jesus said, “Blessed is the man who has suffered and found life” (Lambdin).
• Jesus said, “Congratulations to the person who has toiled and has found life” (Patterson and Meyer).
• Jesus says: “Blessed is the person who has struggled. He has found life” (Patterson and Robinson).
• Said-JS54 this: “a-blessed-one is the-man who-is-troubled; he-fell to(the)Life” (Interlinear Version).

Here the word that is rendered as troubled in the interlinear is rendered as suffered, labored, toiled and struggles by others and in the right discernment of this word is the Truth of this saying. The available comments on this saying include:

• Marvin Meyer writes: “If this is a saying about those who work hard, as is likely, mention may be made of Proverbs 8:34-36, with its commendation of a person who continually observes the ways of Wisdom, or Sirach 51:26-27, with its injunction that one labor under the yoke of Wisdom, or the Cynic author ‘Crates,’ Epistles 15 and 16, with the observation that a Cynic is one who works hard at philosophy.” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, p. 92).
• Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “Here we find an equivalent, in the form of a blessing, to the invitation repeated in Saying 90 from Matthew 11:28-30; in that saying Matthew’s reference to ‘labor’ is omitted, perhaps in order to be placed here. ‘Finding rest’ in Saying 90 is equivalent to ‘finding life’ here. See also Saying 10, on ‘working together.'” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 165).
• Funk and Hoover write: “In form, this aphorism mimics the beatitudes found in Matthew (5:3-12) and Luke (6:20-22). But in content it recalls the ‘labors’ of Hercules. In early Christian times, Cynics and Stoics, two dominant schools of philosophy during the Greco-Roman period, 300 B.C.E. – 300 C.E., looked to Hercules as a kind of heroic founder. This sort of borrowing from popular culture was common in the early Christian movement as the followers of Jesus added to the legacy of their teacher. Also, the promise of life echoes the prologue to Thomas and related motifs elsewhere in this gospel (101:3; 114:1; further, 18:3; 19:4; 85:2; 111:2).” (The Five Gospels, p. 506).

Marvin Meyer asks if this should be seen from a carnal perspective, that men who work hard would be blessed. This blessing can work in this explanation if the work that one does is spiritual, if it is under the yoke of Wisdom….that Wisdom from above. Grant and Freedman relate this to the Masters call to ALL men to “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29) which is similarly put in Thomas 90; in Thomas however the idea of labor is missing and that one must also see this idea of labor as the right rendering of this word for this understanding to worlk. Funk and Hoover bring up the idea of the Beatitudes of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels but they also bring up the idea of Hercules who in esoteric circles is seen in a very spiritual way with His labors being equivalent to what is called by some the twelve stages leading to discipleship. The premise of the commentary is that this idea is then borrowed from popular culture but we KNOW of NO such ideas in the early Christian movement and this certainly is not entertained by the Church Fathers. If we can see the idea that these Greek and Roman gods are in their essence, if not in the popular culture, aspects and potencies of the Godhead as seen by the man in the world and which are given names and sometimes elaborate stories, then we can come a long way in understanding the view of God of these ancient people.

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.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.

From a previous essay and Quote of the Day we reprise these words:  It is interesting to note that the ideas of the Quote of the Day embody much of the Master’s teachings and can set the stage for the beginning of each man’s revelation and realization of the Light of the Soul; that is, that by the intentional practice of these ‘rules’ of conduct one can put himself in the position of a follower of the Master and an keeper of His word and this regardless if he has ever heard of the Christ or wants to be affiliated with any ideas Christian. By keeping these sound principals of Life in mind and practicing them a man can lift himself up above and beyond the world of men and into the world of the Good, the Beautiful and the True as it exists for those in whom the Christ Within, the God Within, is awakened. Ponder on this.

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/