Mysticism & Gospel of Thomas – No. 16 – The Divine Fire

Verse - The Divine Fire

Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to spread peace in the world. They do not know that I have come to bring conflict on the earth: fire, sword and war. For there will be five in one house: three will be against two, and two will be against three, the father against the son, the son against the father, and they will stand alone."

Comment

He means the glow of the Holy Spirit, which waits in every heart to be kindled and ignited. The other words 'division', 'sword' and 'war' are also symbols of spiritual changes that take place in the flaring up of the spiritual fire, the inner light, in man. They indicate the dissolution of the sensual man in the inner man, the ego in the self.

When man reaches enlightenment on the path inward and then walks alone through the night of the soul, all the lower powers in him rise up for the last time against the higher ones, until their insubstantiality is recognized. Then from the loneliness blossoms the community with God, the perfection through becoming one. What appears externally as distress and need ultimately proves to be redemption and liberation.