Few Have Found the Kingdom

1. And when we had listened to these sayings, we grew happy, because we had been sad because of the sayings we recorded previously.

2. When he, however, saw us being happy, he said: “Woe to all of you who have no advocate! Woe to you who are in need of grace!

3. Blessed will they be who have spoken out freely, and (thus) obtained grace for themselves.

4. Liken yourselves to the (case of) foreigners.

5. How it is with them as they go about in front of your city?

6. Why are you shocked when you willingly cast yourselves out, and separate yourselves from your city?

7. Why do you willingly forsake your dwelling place, abandoning it to those who want to live in it?

8. O you outcasts and refugees! Woe to you, because you will be captured!

9. Or maybe you believe that the Father is affable, or that he is persuaded without prayers, or that he permits remission to one on someone else’s behalf, or that he puts up with someone who asks, (saying):

10. ‘Because he knows what (our) desire is, and what the flesh needs as well, is this not what desires the soul, given that apart from the soul the body does not sin, just like the soul is not saved apart from [the] spirit?’

11. However, if the soul is saved apart from evil, and the spirit is saved as well, the body will then be freed from sin,

12. because the spirit uplifts the soul, but the body kills it; that is, (the soul) is what puts itself to death.

13. Truly I say to you, he will not at all forgive the soul of the sin, nor the flesh of the guilt, because not one of those who have donned the flesh will be saved,

14. because do you imagine that many have found the kingdom of Heaven?

15. Blessed is he who has seen himself as a fourth one in Heaven!”