Mysticism & Gospel of Thomas – No. 27 – The Way Up

Verse - The Way Up

"If you do not withdraw from the world, you will never find the kingdom. If you do not keep the Sabbath as the Sabbath, you will not see the (true) Father."

Comment

If you do not abstain from the world, you will not find the kingdom of God. The kingdom, heaven, is within you. And if you are not born again, you will not attain the kingdom of heaven. Even if someone has made a thousand wrong choices and made mistakes, the way upwards, into the kingdom of light of God, is always open to him.

The love of the Eternal is closer to no one than to the erring one who thirsts for truth and goodness. The way upwards is a way inwards, at the entrance to which it is necessary to close eyes and ears to the images and voices of the world so that the inner senses awaken and become aware of the presence of the kingdom of God.

Abstaining from the world

Abstaining from the world does not mean that we deny the world and life and live in need and without possessions. This world is a school for everything that lives. A university and place of development for future gods. The fact that we are embodied in it shows that we have much to learn here and the task of mastering life wherever it confronts us and at the same time of progressively perfecting ourselves. All the means of this life should serve us to do this.

Christ demands neither renunciation of the world nor lack of possessions, but superiority over possessions and self-overcoming detachment from the world, that is, freedom from obsession with possessions and attachment to the world. The Christian lives in the world without being dependent on it. He walks with his feet over the earth and lives with his heart in heaven, not just on Sundays, but always.