Gospel of Thomas - Chapter 090
From Sensus Plenior
Saying 89
- (89) Jesus said, "Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not realize that he who made the inside is the same one who made the outside?"
- Lu 11:39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
- Lu 11:40 [Ye] fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?
- Lu 11:41 But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.
- Lu 11:42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
- Lu 11:43 Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.
- Lu 11:44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over [them] are not aware [of them].
Whenever there are two things they are two aspects of the same thing. The one thing is the person, who has an inside or 'spiritual' aspect and an outside or 'flesh'.
Cleaning the flesh; doing works or changing behavior, does not clean the spirit. But if the spirit is clean, physical dirtiness does not matter. Some had mistakenly tried to apply the physical dirtiness to spiritual things and say that if you are pure inside, you can indulge in sins of the flesh without affecting your spiritual status. This is an error of interpretation.
The moral things are spiritual in nature which work out into fleshly behaviors. The one who is spiritually pure turns away from such things.
