Gospel of Thomas - Chapter 102
Saying 101
- (101) <Jesus said,> "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. And whoever does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. For my mother [...], but my true mother gave me life."
- Lu 14:26 If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Again this is literally a similar teaching so it cannot be said to be Gnostic. The key to understanding what is being said comes from an obscure law:
- De 19:5 As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
- De 19:6 Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him; whereas he [was] not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past.
Buried in the statement "he hated him not in time past" is the implication that the accident was an act of hate. This may seem extreme, however, Love is the choice to put another first. The opposite of love is hate, and if the person is not loved, he is hated.
The wood-chopper did not take the safety of the other into account first. He placed the act of chopping wood to be more important than the safety of his friend.
Now we can understand what God meant by:
- Ro 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
God placed the firstborn son Esau to be in the place of the second and Jacob to inherit.
Christ must be first in our priorities before all others.
