INNER CIRCLE: Look For The Living One

So, rather than take this saying as a threat – as if it were even possible to lose our chance to become aware of our interconnectedness with the Divine – it probably is merely phrased this way to help us understand the importance of awakening to the truth.

This would be similar to some of the other sayings from Jesus that appear as Apocalyptic Hyperbole and are not to be taken literally but metaphorically. For example, when Jesus says, “What good is it to gain the whole world but lose your soul?” the point is not that anyone could actually lose their own soul, but that your soul is worth infinitely more than anything this world could possibly offer you in exchange.

Based on everything we’ve read so far in the Gospel of Thomas, the idea that anyone could ever be unable to see reality and experience their innate Oneness with Christ is nonsensical. So, it’s unlikely that this is what Jesus intends to emphasize here. Instead, the point is that remaining blind to this reality of Oneness isn’t wise.

Let’s examine the saying again and pay attention to the language used:

Jesus said, “Look for the Living One while you are alive to His loving presence, lest you die to this awareness and seek to see Him and are unable to do so.”

Notice that Jesus begins by saying that we should “look for the Living One while [we] are alive to His loving presence.” This simply urges us to seek and to enjoy our connection with Christ “while we are alive to [this] loving presence.” If anything, this appears to be a statement to those who are already aware of this presence within.

So, the first part of the saying is made to those of us who are already awakened to this beautiful reality of Oneness with the Living Presence of Christ within. Jesus merely wants us to continue to “look for” and to remain “alive to His loving presence” which has already begun to enter our imagination.

The second half is not about physical death. He doesn’t say “lest you die” but “lest you die to this awareness” which, again, is a warning about losing the initial revelation of your Oneness with Christ.

In other words, once we become aware of the Loving Presence of Christ within, we must continue to seek out and to remain alive to this reality, or else we may slowly slip back down into that place of dreamlike slumber where the illusion of separation returns to cover our eyes.

The danger is not that we might physical die and then become unable to see Christ within, but that we might see the reality of Christ’s loving presence and then somehow die to that awareness and find ourselves wandering the wastelands of separation once more.

The warning for us is not to lose sight of the reality of Christ’s abiding presence and to intentionally strengthen our ability to see and to remain alive to our Oneness with Christ so that we never run the risk of falling back to sleep and forgetting who we are in Christ.

**

Be Human As God Is Human
If God is the One in whom we all live and move and have our being, then perhaps we are the ones in whom God lives and moves and has being too. If so, where does God end and where do we begin?

In this new book,  Sola Deus: What If God Is All Of Us? by author Keith Giles,  we’re asked to reconsider our common assumptions about God and ourselves in ways we’ve never imagined before.

Available now on Amazon in Print and Kindle. Order Today>

**

Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.”  His new Sola Trilogy includes Sola Mysterium: Celebrating the Beautiful Uncertainty of Everything and Sola Deus: What If God Is All Of Us?, both from Quoir Publishing.