ON LOVE; PART XDXVII

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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.

(51) His disciples said to him: “When will the <resurrection> of the dead take place, and when will the new world come?” He said to them: “That (resurrection) which you are awaiting has (already) come, but you do not recognize it.”

(52) His disciples said to him: “Twenty-four prophets have spoken in Israel, and all (of them) have spoken through you.” He said to them: “You have pushed away the living (one) from yourselves, and you have begun to speak of those who are dead.“

(53) His disciples said to him: “Is circumcision beneficial, or not?” He said to them: “If it were beneficial, their father would beget them circumcized from their mother. But the true circumcision in the spirit has prevailed over everything.“

(54) Jesus says: “Blessed are the poor. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to you.“

(55) Jesus says: “Whoever does not hate his father and his mother cannot become a disciple of mine. And whoever does not hate his brothers and his sisters (and) will not take up his cross as I do, will not be worthy of me.“

(56) Jesus says: “Whoever has come to know the world has found a corpse. And whoever has found (this) corpse, of him the world is not worthy.“

(57) Jesus says: “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.“

While the first three ideas from the Values to Live By, which is our Quote of the Day below for several days now, may be seen in a world view as well as from the perspective of the individual, this next one, A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for group, community and national affairs, is more centered upon the individual although its worldwide effects should be noted as well as an extension of the ways of the individual. In the idea of A Love of Truth—essential for a just, inclusive and progressive society; we see the societal reflection of this ideal as this Truth must be found in the laws and the doctrines of the religions, and the political structures of our modern world and we should see in this that it is brought about by responsible people who organize the political, religious and business groups whose responsibility it IS to move society ahead. It becomes the responsibility of the leaders of these groups to create and maintain a just, inclusive and progressive society and it is the individual man who IS this leader.

In the idea of A Sense of Justice—recognition of the rights and needs, of all, we see these same leaders as responsible for the just treatment of ALL the members and the citizens in these political, religious and business enterprises; a responsibility that is progressed much but which is still allowed to flounder along class lines which tend to hide some of the other prejudices that yet afflict us as a single race of men in the world, the human race. In justice there must be equality and the well off should have no more justice than the poor; they should not be able to buy favor in any arena of human expression save for their own wealth and possessions. They should have no greater voice than an equally educated and perceptive man who has not the same level of resources. Justice of course relies upon Truth and in this no individual should see himself as above another and one should never believe that God, in Whom there IS “no respect of persons” (Colossians 3:25) has favored any one man above another,  rather he should see Life through this thought from the American Declaration of Independence that we posted a few essays back:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

In the idea of a Spirit of Cooperation—based on active goodwill and the principle of right human relationships; we begin to see the greater reliance upon the individual and we should understand here that it is through this sense of individual cooperation that there IS cooperation in the world’s political, religious and business enterprises. Here we should note that the Truth, the justice and the cooperation of religious, political and business entities can be clearly seen in the policies and doctrines that each espouses. Are the policies and doctrines centered in the Truth of GoodWill, which we call Love in Action, and which is evidenced by a sense and a practice of Right Human Relations? Here, it becomes the responsibility of the individual who IS a part of the political, the religious or the business organization to effect the necessary changes. Cooperation means that one sees and accepts the rights of ALL the individuals within the group and between the differing groups; that one recognizes the homogeneity of humanity and chooses to work together toward the common goals which can be seen above in justice for ALL and Truth in dealing with others, ALL others.

Here then is this next idea, A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for group, community and national affairs; if Truth and justice are to abound, they must be founded in cooperation and if cooperation is to succeed, it must be based in A Sense of Personal Responsibility. Each man must try himself to understand the value of Truth, justice and cooperation in personal and world affairs and to measure the effect of those things that he may say and do on the whole. It is left here to the individual to see the effect of what he may say and do on others and take responsibility for his own actions, correcting them as he moves ever forward to those illusive goals of Peace, of Truth, of Justice….all of which can be found in cooperation which in turn IS found in accepting responsibility. As we leave this topic for today and in remembering that we are approaching United Nations Day 2013, we should note here that it is not helpful to any and it is not in that Spirit of Cooperation for a man to use his bully pulpit, be it in politics or religion or business, to speak ill about the United Nations; the UN IS not perfect but it is humanity’s greatest hope for world Peace and harmony. The United Nations IS the forum for World Truth, and World Justice and most importantly World Cooperation and its benefits should not be torn down nor mocked by men who profess their own individual and national selfish interests above the Greater Good which is ever found in GoodWill and Right Human Relations.

In returning to our fifty third saying from the Gospel of Thomas we should try to see the ideas presented in this and in the previous two sayings as the Master’s speaking out against the traditions of the Jews. Speaking out against the tradition of the resurrection, or of the repose as Thomas paints this, and this same idea is reflected in the synoptic gospels when the Master tells the Sadducees that “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err” (Mark 12:27) during His discourse with them on this subject. Here the Master gives us the parabolic idea that those resurrected are the Living and that the resurrection is connected with the Kingdom as He tells us that the resurrected “are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30) and that “they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead” (Luke 20:35). In these ideas of the Kingdom from the synoptic gospels we should be able to see the point from Thomas Gospel, that as disciples they have already been accounted worthy of the Kingdom Within and they ARE among the resurrected and the repose from the perspective that this IS freedom from this world.

Speaking out against the adherence to the misunderstood pronouncements of the prophets and concentration upon what they may have said, the Master reflects upon the how unfruitful this attention can be as He IS the one of whom they spoke. We read much in the Master’s and His apostles’ words about the failure of the Jews to understand the Truth of which the prophets spoke. In His discourse with the Jews regarding the ideas that came to them from the prophets the Master says: “And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent , him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:38-39). Yet the traditions are heavily dependent upon the words of the prophets, words that by doctrine have been made to mean other things yet to this day. Here we should clearly see the Master’s words from Thomas as saying to the disciples that they need not attend to the historical perspective of the Jews of old and that the One that the prophets speak of is in front of them; it is to Him that they must attend.

Both of these are in regard to the traditions of the Jews with which the disciple of Christ should have no interest and about which he should take no part and we showed this idea as the same as we find in the forty seventh saying about the old wine in the new bottle which we discussed in some detail yesterday. It IS into this same mold of thought we should place these words on circumcision which, as we showed in our last essay, are steeped in tradition and the ways of the Jews ONLY. Circumcision was their mark from the time of Abraham and it is given very little attention in the Laws of Moses except as we presented yesterday in regard that it should be done. It is the sign of the Jew, not the Jew as a member of the nation but rather of the Jew as a member of one of the Jewish religious sects. The last we read about this is in the Book of Joshua where it is done for ALL men as they prepare to enter into the land of Canaan and again, we see this as an act of identification; that the circumcised man is a Jew. ALL of the other references that we have in the Old Testament are in regard to the True circumcision, that same one that we see in these words from Thomas.

What IS circumcision of the heart? What IS circumcision in the Spirit? Simply put these are the Truths of circumcision, that ALL else IS cut away, ALL else but God IS removed from the focus of the Life of the man. The Prophet Jeremiah says that the Jews should “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart” (Jeremiah 4:4) and in this we should see the words from Deuteronomy from the perspective of the man, that while the law IS saying that the Lord will accomplish this circumcision, the reality is that it comes from the Inner man. We read from the law: “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live” (Deuteronomy 30:6). Here we see the purpose of the circumcision, that the clutter of worldly Life is stripped away and a man IS left to Love God with the completeness of his Life and this we understand to mean that we Love our fellowman. This IS the Master’s reflection in this saying that “the true circumcision in the Spirit has proved useful in every way” (Blatz); there IS NO profit in the physical performance of circumcision but there IS in the spiritual purpose of living the spiritual Life through form. As we discussed yesterday, this IS NOT unlike the Christian idea of baptism where the actual ritual has little or no meaning to the infant and is intended as a symbol only for the more mature; the reality of baptism is the immersion (the meaning of the word) of the man in the spiritual Life, a Life that IS focused on God and on the God Within.

ALL of these three, and perhaps more that we did not see in this light, are concerned with the idea of the disciples forgetting the traditions of the elders, the traditions of the doctrines and anything that can take their attention away from the Truth of the Kingdom and this is not unlike what our instruction should be here today in relation to these same ideas. The ways of the Jew should be of no import to the Christian and the teachings of the Old Testament are just that, Old; they should not be appended to the teachings of the Christ save for the law and even in this there must be a growing of the law in accordance with the progression of the race. The doctrinal teachings of the Christian elders, the Church Fathers, should be equally forgotten from the perspective of their taking one’s attention away from the Living Christ, the Christ Within, and ALL of the doctrinal teachings and the wrangling over the words of the Master and His apostles should take a back seat to the drive of a man become a doer and a keeper of His words.

This next saying is nearly verbatim from the words of Luke and it is a bit different from the same saying as we find it in Matthew’s Gospel:

• “Blessed are the poor. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to you” (Thomas 54).
• “Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20).
• “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:6).

There are several ways for us to look at this idea and none of them ARE that those who are poor in this Life, as we would understand in lacking money and property, will attain to the Kingdom of God because of this poverty. While we have discussed this saying before, staring early on in In the Words of Jesus part 10 and then through the next several that discussed ALL of the Beatitudes, we have had only one idea that we believed fits in both versions from the synoptic gospels:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that have given up all for the Master and for the Kingdom. Those who have made the Kingdom the focus of their life and their treasure and have forsaken not only the longing for material things but also wrong attitudes and feelings and have put their trust in the Lord. They have made the Kingdom the most important thing and they shall have it.

Now it is difficult to understand this idea of Spirit as it is applied here and in our understanding there can be no poorness per se in the Spirit however, in the complex application according to the similar saying from Luke, we CAN see that the idea of Spirit IS offered to define this idea of being poor, that one then can be poor in or for the Spirit IS in accordance with the Master’s teaching of forsaking ALL for the Kingdom. Let us look at he available commentary for this saying from Thomas:

• R. McL. Wilson writes: “On logion 54: ‘Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven,’ Grant and Freedman say that it combines Luke vi. 20 with Matthew v. 3, but it may, perhaps, be doubted if Matthew comes into question at all. The only difference between Luke and Thomas lies in the use of the phrase ‘kingdom of heaven,’ and Thomas, as already noted, habitually avoids the name of God. It is at least possible that Thomas here preserves the original form, which Luke has altered by substituting ‘God’ and Matthew interpreted by adding ‘in spirit’ after ‘the poor.’ There are, however, other possibilities: deliberate alteration of Luke by Thomas, or the transmission of the saying from Luke to Thomas through a Jewish-Christian milieu in which the change was made.” (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, pp. 55-56).
• Funk and Hoover write: “There is no question about Jesus’ consorting with the poor, the hungry, and the persecuted. He announced that God’s domain belonged to the poor, not because they wre righteous, but because they were poor. This reverses a common view that God blesses the righteous with riches and curses the immoral with poverty.” (The Five Gospels, p. 504).
• Gerd Ludemann writes: “The logion corresponds to Luke 6.20 and Matt. 5.3, but derives from Luke 6.20, because ‘yours’ corresponds to Lukan redaction. This conclusion is all the more compelling as in Luke 6.20 the Coptic translation of the New Testament reads ‘their’ instead of ‘yours’ – no doubt an assimilation to Matt. 5.3.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 617).

Two of these commentaries are looking to the exactness of the saying from Thomas against those from Matthew and Luke and this likely because they do not see this whole process of the writer’s recording what is recollected and what it means to each apostle as the individualized nature of the Gospels as we see this. From our perspective the ideas of Luke and of Thomas are identical and the idea of Matthew helps to lead us to the right understanding which is completely missed by Funk and Hoover above as they relegate this to material poverty. The IS NO special allowance made for the poor as regards the Kingdom of God, this would make no sense against the many ideas from the Master as to the attaining of the Kingdom and this IS understood by most in the churches as they are not encouraging poverty for their members. And this should not be confused with the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus as this parable does not speak of heaven but rather of the afterlife in the death of the form. We must remember here that the “Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) and that it IS in forsaking the worldly for the Godly that this Kingdom IS attained.

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/