{"id":8578,"date":"2013-12-13T17:56:46","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T22:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/?p=8578"},"modified":"2013-12-13T17:56:46","modified_gmt":"2013-12-13T22:56:46","slug":"in-the-words-of-jesus-part-885","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/13\/in-the-words-of-jesus-part-885\/","title":{"rendered":"IN THE WORDS OF JESUS\u2013Part 885"},"content":{"rendered":"

ON LOVE; PART\u00a0CDLXXIV<\/span><\/h2>\n
\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391<\/span><\/h6>\n

GoodWill\u00a0IS Love in Action<\/span><\/h2>\n
\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391<\/span><\/h6>\n

The Gospel of Thomas<\/span><\/h2>\n

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas<\/em>\u00a0wrote\u00a0them down.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

(96) Jesus [says]:\u00a0“The kingdom of the Father is like [a] woman.\u00a0She took a little bit of yeast. [She] hid it in dough (and) made it into huge loaves of bread.\u00a0Whoever has ears should hear.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

(97) Jesus says:\u00a0“The kingdom of the [Father] is like a woman who is carrying a [jar] filled with flour.\u00a0While she was walking on [the] way, very distant (from home),\u00a0the handle of the jar broke (and) the flour leaked out [on] the path.\u00a0(But) she did not know (it); she had not noticed a problem.\u00a0When she reached her house, she put the jar down on the floor (and) found it empty.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

(98) Jesus says:\u00a0“The kingdom of the Father is like a person who wanted to kill a powerful person.\u00a0He drew the sword in his house (and) stabbed it into the wall to test whether his hand would be strong (enough).\u00a0Then he killed the powerful one.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

(99)\u00a0The disciples said to him: “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.”\u00a0He said to them: “Those here, who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and my mother.\u00a0They are the ones who will enter the kingdom of my Father.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

(100)\u00a0They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him: “Caesar\u2019s people demand taxes from us.”\u00a0He said to them: “Give Caesar (the things) that are Caesar\u2019s.\u00a0Give God (the things) that are God\u2019s.\u00a0And what is mine give me.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

(101)\u00a0“Whoever does not hate his [father] and his mother as I do will not be able to be a [disciple] of mine.\u00a0And whoever does [not] love [his father] and his mother as I do will not be able to be a [disciple] of mine.\u00a0For my mother [\u2026], but my true [mother] gave me life.<\/em>”\u00a014<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We left off in the last essay with the beginning of \u00a0our look at the one hundred first saying from Thomas’ Gospel where we find an expansion of sorts on Thomas’ fifty fifth saying and what we see as an attempt to explain this idea of hate<\/em> without removing it or changing it as we find in the Gospel of Matthew. The idea from Matthew is a valid one, we do not question this as the idea of Loving God must come first for the aspirant and the disciple and this we should see and take from the first part of the Great Commandment which we read as: “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<\/em>” (Matthew 22:37-38). Here we use Matthew’s version as we are comparing this to his other words and there should be some continuity here insofar as this apostle’s view of the Master’s teaching and His thoughts. We should also note that in the apostle’s version of our subject saying:\u00a0“He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me<\/em>” (Matthew 10:37-38), we find his view that the Master’s words are construed as this ‘loving less<\/em>‘ is necessary for being worthy of Him. It is in the context of these two sayings, this from Matthew and the other from Luke, that begin to build our understanding that this being\u00a0accounted worthy<\/em> is the same as discipleship and while there are many other places where this idea shows through as well, none is as straightforward as the words from Thomas fifty fifth saying which contains both ideas in a single verse; the Master says there that:\u00a0“Whoever does not hate his father and his mother cannot become a disciple of mine.\u00a0And 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<\/em>“.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we have always seen this word hate<\/em> as a difficult idea to defend in this scripture and we have, as have many in the doctrinal church, taken to understand this idea of hate<\/em> as ‘to love less<\/em>‘ and this as a compromise between the hate<\/em> of Luke and the idea of NOT Loving any more than God. Here however in this current saying from Thomas Gospel we may have an even better ability to understand the reality this way to eschew the carnal ideas of family. In this saying, through the problems of the missing manuscript, we can see a novel approach to understanding this dynamic of hate<\/em> as it compares to the reality of Love; we must however remember that this IS a parabolic saying that can lead a man to discipleship and which must be rightly understood by such a man. The Interlinear version of this saying tells us:\u00a0“Whoever-hates-his-[father] not, and-his-mother, in-my-way, he-can-become-[disciple] to-me not;\u00a0and whoever-loves-his-father not, and-his-mother, in-my-way, he-can-become-[disciple to]-me<\/em> not”. As we take this up again we repeat our way of looking at these ideas from Thomas’ Gospel, that we have not studied any of these sayings, save for a cursory look and perhaps an advance view based on the comments from another saying which IS True here from the fifty fifth, and that we are developing our thoughts ‘on the fly’ if you will. We generally do not look at the Interlinear until the day our our discussion and here this is True; we did not see this until yesterday. We point this out here so that any seeming contradictions that may be found in our day to day writing can be better understood and generally it is the final thought that we offer on the next day that is become our True thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here then in this saying which melds Love and hate<\/em> into the Master’s words, we find that we have other sayings that can help to explain the pertinent points. As we said in the last post the key words to this first part of this saying are in the Master’s stipulation of “in-my-way<\/em>” which is rendered by others as “as I do<\/em>“. This places a criteria upon this idea of Love, which we should clearly understand from His many words on Love, as for this idea of hate<\/em>\u00a0for which we DO NOT have clear understanding. we do have several other sayings to draw upon. To be as accurate as is possible we will restrict our view of other sayings that may explain this idea of hate<\/em> to others that feature similar ideas of family. As we discuss above we do have the ideas from Matthew and Luke from their own versions of this saying as well as the ideas from Thomas’ fifty fifth saying where we can find the combination of the ideas of the being accounted worthy<\/em> and discipleship and here there should be no doubt that Jesus words saying worthy of Him are the same as being accounted worthy of the Kingdom; there can be no other reality here. In this we should see the synergy of these four sayings from the various sources as well as our reliance upon the idea that one must Love family less than the Master and therefore less than God. None of this however allows us to understand hate<\/em> from the perspective of this saying where one should Love family as He does and hate<\/em> family the same way; while Love less than can be see as the Truth of this, it does not explain Thomas use of these ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are two places in Thomas’ the synoptic gospels that we can find similar ideas of family; the one is the ninety ninth saying from Thomas that we alluded to in the last essay and which we discussed a few days back along with our understanding of the synoptic versions. The other is Jesus remarks regarding the very nature of His presence with us 2000 years ago which we find in Matthew, in Luke and in Thomas as:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • From Thomas:\u00a0Jesus says: “Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the earth.\u00a0But they do not know that I have come to cast dissension upon the earth: fire, sword, war.\u00a0For there will be five in one house: there will be three against two and two against three,\u00a0father against son and son against father.\u00a0And they will stand as solitary ones<\/em>“ <\/em>(Thomas 16).<\/span><\/li>\n
  • “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. \u00a0For I am come to set\u00a0a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man\u2019s foes shall be they of his own household<\/em>” (Matthew 10:34-36).<\/span><\/li>\n
  • “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law<\/em>” (Luke 12:49-53).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The point here in these sayings is the line of demarcation between the one who accepts and believes on the<\/em> Master and the one who DOES NOT and it matters not that this line is formed within a family causing the type of rift that is seen here in His words. We should try to see these rifts as the hatred<\/em> that the Master speaks of in our subject saying; this IS hatred<\/em> for a cause however; not of the person but of the persons beliefs. And, while these rifts cut both ways, the Master’s point is on His own behalf in our saying as His words are\u00a0“as I do<\/em>” and not as the non believer<\/em> would. And here, from the perspective of the acceptor and the believer,<\/em> we should see the further idea of Love as the one who accepts the Master’s teaching WILL Love those even that he may hate<\/em> in this context. Can we see these ideas? We can see the reality here of the Master who is continually attacked for His views and His ways by the religious leaders of the day while at the same time professes Love for them ALL in His teaching and in His actions as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Our other example is found in the ninety ninth saying that we recently discussed where we read:<\/span><\/p>\n

    The disciples said to him: “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.”\u00a0He said to them: “Those here, who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and my mother.\u00a0They are the ones who will enter the kingdom of my Father<\/em>” (Thomas 99).<\/span><\/p>\n

    This saying has parallels in the synoptics as we discussed in our essays on saying ninety nine and while they are the more colorful they do carry the same message although here we KNOW that it is His disciples who announce the arrival while in the synoptics the messenger is unknown. The Truth here is similar to the idea above in that these are relationships formed in the world and of the world and as such they have no spiritual significance. Here, as we discussed previously, the brothers and the mother of the Master are disciplic in their view but this does not matter as His words ARE NOT so much about them as the ARE about the principal that carnal relatives ARE NOT to be seen above any other person; ALL ARE equal in the eyes of the Lord as He Loves ALL equally and explains that those closest to Him are those who are keeping the will of the Father. Here again we can find Love and hate,<\/em> not of the persons but of their ways; if the mother or the brother IS NOT keeping His word<\/em> they are but the people of the world who go about their carnal business unawares, but those who are with Him, who keep His words, can be deemed as ONE with Him and thereby become those closest to Him supplanting any worldly relationships. Here, while the idea of Love and hate<\/em> as it regards family is more hidden in His words, it IS surely there as hate<\/em> IS NOT hate<\/em> as we commonly understand it and can Truly be seen in the view of the Apostle Matthew as Loving less. Loving ALL things that are of God, which includes those that ARE expressing His will by their ONENESS in doing so, “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength<\/em>” (Mark 12:30). Here we must be willing and able to see this idea of Love through the words and the ideas, that this Love IS then for ALL things but that it IS on the Godly part and not the carnal that it is concentrated. These sayings that use this idea of hate<\/em> are difficult to see because the very idea of hate<\/em> is contrary to His teachings on Love and it still seems that the better ideas are found in Matthew’s version where we find that this hate<\/em> is to Love less. In the current saying we do get some help as the hate<\/em> has additional criteria attached and that IS that we should hate<\/em> as the Master does and which idea we try to find in our cited sayings above. We will not go further into the last part of this saying as the text is uncertain and, in the way that it is construed it gives us the same ideas of lines of demarcation between the carnal and the spiritual.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    The next group of sayings from Thomas’ Gospel are:<\/span><\/p>\n

    (102) Jesus says:\u00a0“Woe to them, the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in a cattle trough, for it neither eats nor [lets] the cattle eat.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

    (103) Jesus says:\u00a0“Blessed is the person who knows at which point (of the house) the robbers are going to enter, so that [he] may arise to gather together his [domain] and gird his loins before they enter.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

    (104)\u00a0\u00a0They said to [Jesus]: “Come, let us pray and fast today!”\u00a0Jesus said: “What sin is it that I have committed, or wherein have I been overcome?\u00a0But when the bridegroom comes out of the wedding chamber, then let (us) fast and pray.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

    (105) Jesus says:\u00a0“Whoever will come to know father and mother, he will be called\u00a0son of a whore.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

    (106) Jesus says:\u00a0“When you make the two into one, you will become sons of man.\u00a0And when you say \u2018Mountain, move away,\u2019 it will move away.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

    (107) Jesus says:\u00a0“The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep.\u00a0One of them went astray, the largest. He left the ninety-nine, (and) he sought the one until he found it.\u00a0After he had toiled, he said to the sheep: \u2018I love you more than the ninety-nine.\u2019<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

    (108) Jesus says:\u00a0“Whoever will drink from my mouth will become like me.\u00a0I myself will become he,\u00a0and what is hidden will be revealed to him.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

    Our next saying, one hundred second, is from this new list and in this one we have a similar intent to one of the woe’s pronounced by the Master in Matthew’s Gospel but with a different way of expressing the idea. This word rendered here as trough<\/em> is rendered as manger<\/em> in most other translation including the Interlinear but we should not think that this means manger<\/em> as in the place of Jesus birth, as the cave or the barn stall. It is possible \u00a0that the Greek word from Luke is mistranslated into the English manger<\/em> as that word does mean:\u00a0a box or trough in a stable or barn from which horses or cattle eat\u00a0<\/em>7\u00a0<\/sup>and this IS how we should see this Coptic word that is used only here in this saying, as a trough.<\/em> In this relation the words from Luke’s Gospel actually do make sense as well as it IS there that Mary laid the Child and this is where the shepherds find Him; however, there is another place where the Luke uses the word to explain where an ox is kept. Nonetheless the English word manger<\/em> with the idea of the trough<\/em> are correct and this does work best in this idea of a dog sleeping in one and thereby inhibiting the cattle’s feeding. The available commentary on this includes:<\/span><\/p>\n