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Within God

Chapter 40 of the Gospel of Thomas for Awakening

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Jesus said, A grapevine has been planted outside of the father, but being unsound, it will be pulled up by its roots and destroyed. (40)

Outside of the Father

Any situation, person, or object that is not planted and rooted in the awareness of God, or in the purpose to realize God, must be drastically ejected from our life. If we do not do this, its destruction will happen as a consequence of the nature of things, the problem being that we may be spiritually (and even physically) destroyed along with it.

Being in the “shadow”

This translation by Lambdin and four others give significant nuances regarding the state of being outside the providence of God.

Lambdin: “Unsound” in the sense of being defective, lacking what is necessary for growth and survival.

Patterson and Maeyer: “Not strong” and therefore weak and without stamina or health.

Nancy Johnson: “Not supported” the way a plant is by a stake. In other words, we will not have God as a support to guide and protect us and be our reservoir of strength.

Brown: “Not viable,” not even legitimate, because of being contrary to the divine order and evolutionary plan. Also it cannot work or succeed.

Brill: “Not established” or rooted and made safe and secure in God.

These descriptive phrases can be applied to us and to anything not within the greater life of God. Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov, a twentieth-century authority on mystical life in the Eastern Christian tradition, wrote a book entitled His Life Is Mine. That pretty well says it all. It is God’s intention to live in us so we may live in him in the state of theosis, the state of deification. This is the condition of total unity of being, a far cry from the feeble condition popularly called “a good Christian life.” This is not the state of a mere Christian, but the state of a Christ. That is the essence of Christianity, and must be our intention and eventual attainment. Otherwise in the summing up after death known as the judgment, lifetime after lifetime we will hear the words: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15, 16). It is not enough to be a good Christian, we must become a true Christ.

Read the next article in the Gospel of Thomas for Yogis: Spiritual Gain and Loss

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Chapters in The Gospel of Thomas for Awakening

  1. The Open Secrets
  2. Seeking Is More Than Just Finding
  3. Seeking the Kingdom Realistically
  4. The One Goal
  5. From the Seen to the Unseen
  6. What Jesus Wants Us To Do
  7. Eat Or Be Eaten
  8. Fishing Wisely
  9. The Inner Field
  10. Guarding the Flame
  11. What Will You Do?
  12. Who Shall Lead?
  13. The Unspeakable
  14. When Virtue is Vice
  15. Father in Heaven; Father on Earth
  16. Divine Discord
  17. The Divine Gift
  18. The Origin is the End
  19. Original Being
  20. A Mustard Seed
  21. Disciples of Jesus
  22. How to Enter the Kingdom
  23. Unity of Vision
  24. Where is Christ?
  25. Love and Protect
  26. Seeing
  27. The Fasting and Sabbath of the Spirit
  28. How Jesus Saw the World
  29. Hidden Treasure
  30. One
  31. The Power of Unbelief
  32. Spiritual Strength
  33. Speak It Out
  34. The Blind
  35. The Secret of Spiritual Security
  36. Live Carefree
  37. Unashamed Before God
  38. At the Source
  39. The Religion of Ignorance
  40. Within God
  41. Spiritual Gain and Loss
  42. Move On
  43. Challenging the Master
  44. The Source of Good and Evil
  45. Great in the Kingdom
  46. Impossible Duality
  47. Peace That Moves Mountains
  48. Back to the Source
  49. Children of the Light
  50. Here and Now
  51. Seeing Yet Blind
  52. Outer Ritual or Inner Growth?
  53. Infinite Transcendence
  54. “Hate”
  55. True Understanding
  56. Wheat and Weeds
  57. Finding Life
  58. Live and Die Not
  59. “Lest Thou Also…”
  60. Who Will Die; Who Will Live
  61. The Path of Unknowing
  62. Awakened by Death
  63. Turning Ourselves Away
  64. Gullibility
  65. The Rejected is Truly Accepted
  66. All–and Nothing
  67. The Blessings of Persecution
  68. Life or Death Lie Within
  69. Admission
  70. Not a Divider
  71. Seeking the Harvest
  72. Thirsting in Vain
  73. Who Shall Enter?
  74. Unfailing Treasure
  75. The All Speaks
  76. Well-dressed Ignoramuses
  77. True Blessedness
  78. A Duplication
  79. Balancing the Inner and the Outer
  80. Near and Far
  81. Seeing the Unseeable
  82. Seeing Your Unknown Side
  83. Our Forefather Adam
  84. Blessed Homelessness
  85. Doubly Wretched
  86. Onward and Upward
  87. Twofold Life
  88. The Yoke of Christ
  89. Knowing the Unknown
  90. Asking and Hearing
  91. Give Not…
  92. Seeking and Knocking
  93. Right Generosity
  94. The Expanding Kingdom
  95. The Fulfilled Universe
  96. Taking Stock
  97. The Spiritual Family
  98. Three Debts
  99. Father and Mother
  100. Exoteric Religion
  101. Ready for Invasion
  102. Penitential Discipline, Anyone?
  103. Daring to Know
  104. Ending Duality
  105. “I Love You More…”
  106. At the Source
  107. Finding the Hidden Treasure
  108. Having Come to the End
  109. Immortal and Above the World
  110. Body and Soul
  111. Where is the Kingdom?
  112. Male and Female?
  113. In Conclusion
  114. Glossary
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