“He who has something in his Heart will be given more; while he who believes he has nothing will be deprived of even the little he has.” ~ Jesus (Gospel of Thomas 41)

 

Before one begins to analyze the deeper meanings of any passages from the Gospel of Thomas it is well worth it to refer to the passages from the biblical Gospels where Jesus says things similarly (in this case Mark 4:25, Matthew 13:12 & Matthew 25:29; see also Luke 12:48 & Luke 19:26) … In addition, I also admit straight away that I have indeed amended the traditionally accepted translation of this verse (which tends to normally read something akin to “The person who possesses will be given more. And the person who does not have will be deprived of even the little that he has”) in order to make it harmonize better with the context of the aforementioned places in the canonical Gospels where Jesus says essentially the same thing — as well as to have it more obviously align with The Way of Christ taught & lived by Jesus throughout his ministry.

 

As far as analyzing the verse itself goes, it must first be noted that Jesus cannot be speaking of material wealth here, otherwise he would be contradicting major portions of his other sermons and radically diverging from a major anti-materialistic tenet of his message (see Matthew 6:25-34, Luke 21:1-4, and even Acts 20:35).  As such, it must be clear that Jesus is speaking here of service – that whomever is engaged in an act of selfless Goodness will be blessed by calling additional like-opportunities to his or herself thereafter.

Similarly, this verse reflects the Truth that those who focus on what they lack will indeed suffer as a consequence, not only inevitably losing what little they have, but suffering from that loss while depriving themselves of the Joy that they could have known instead – the Joy that could only have come from selflessly looking to what they could have been giving to others instead.

 

Filed under: My Favorite Verses by Scaughdt