How Best to Thrive

This week we’re going to continue this study of Colossians in the New Testament as translated by David Bentley Hart. I keep promising some practical advice out of Colossians, and now we’re going to hit it here in chapter 3. It says, If therefore you were raised together with the Anointed, seek the things above where the Anointed is sitting at God’s right hand. Set your mind on the things above, not the things on earth. For you have died, and your life has been hidden with the Anointed in God. When the Anointed our life is made manifest, then you too will be made manifest, along with him, in glory. Now, you can interpret this in the Gnostic manner that we’ve been discussing here. The anointed is the Christ, and he is the Third Order of Powers. Jesus was the Third Order of Powers incarnate. That is, the Fullness of God in its perfection manifested on the earth. All of us have the Fullness of God, but none of us have the perfection, because we have our karma that we bring in, and our bodies break down, and we are fighting the never-ending war against the demiurge and death. But the Christ, or the Anointed, when he came to the earth, he came to bring us the imprint of the perfection of the Fullness. And we can take on that perfection of the Fullness of God when we ask for the Christ, or the Anointed, to anoint us, you see? And that replaces the Third Order of Powers in all of its perfection over on top of our Second Order Powers, which are fallen because they are bonded to the material plane. But we can raise our vibrations, is how New Agers like to speak of it, we can raise our self back up to the Fullness of God only through the perfection of the Anointed. That’s the perfection of the Anointed’s job on our behalf. He’s like the correcting algorithm to our corrupted code. So, if therefore you were raised together with the Anointed, that is, once you have accepted the Anointed bringing you the Third Order of Powers, and you have asked them to help you and to cleanse your Second Order Powers, to bring them the perfection of the Anointed, then we are to seek the perfection above. Our focus is to be above, because we come from above, and we will return to above. You see, it helps us to shift our mindset from being stuck down here—I’ve got a short life, and then I die. That isn’t it. We refocus then on above and the perfection of the Fullness of God, because we now once again can perceive that perfection of God, once we allow the Anointed to correct our fallen egos, you see? And when it says that we have died and our life has been hidden with the Anointed and God, our fallen nature—our Second Order Powers that have become corrupted—they are put away. They are displaced by the Third Order power, the perfection of the Anointed, and its nesting fractals. And we nest into Christ, and we nest up on into the Father that way. Otherwise, we’re not nesting up into the fractals of the Fullness of God. We’re lost and wandering around in the fallen world, which is the province of the demiurge, and it’s not a pleasant place to be. Going on to verse 5, So mortify those bodily members that are on earth. Mortifying means put to death to kill those bodily members that are on earth, but it’s not talking about your body. It’s not saying that you should chop off your hand or your private parts. These are what the bodily members are that should be mortified—it says whoring, (which is sexual promiscuity), impurity, passion, (and by that it means overwhelming emotions, being a slave to your emotions), mortify malign desire, (that is, you shouldn’t wish for bad things to happen. You shouldn’t wish for bad things to happen to other people), and acquisitiveness, which is a form of idolatry. And acquisitiveness, my gosh, that’s our consumer culture. The purpose of commercials, the purpose of advertisements, is to inspire acquisitiveness in us, which is a form of idolatry, because we worship the exercise equipment. We worship the vacation to the best spot. We worship that kind of food. That’s what idolatry is. Verse 6 says, On account of which things, God’s indignation is coming. So God doesn’t like those things it’s saying. On the virtue versus vice ledger, those things fall on the vice side. And once again, that is sexual promiscuity, Impurity, and it doesn’t specify impurity in what, but it wants us to be pure. It wants us to be reflecting that purity of the Third Order Powers, reflecting the Fullness of God, reflecting the purity of virtuous living and virtuous thought. Passion, that is overwhelming emotions. Don’t be caught and brought down by emotions that boil up, because those emotions are being triggered by archons. Those emotions are being triggered by the demiurge. They want you to feel bad. They want you to feel hopeless. That is their door into your soul, is through passions. So we’re supposed to put those passions away. Malign desire, we want to get rid of that. Don’t wish for the bad. And this acquisitiveness, always having to have more, better. Verse 7 says, and in which things you used to walk back then when you lived by them, but now you must put it all away. Indignation, animosity, malice, blasphemy, obscene speech from your mouth. Okay, let’s look at those. “But now you must put all of that away. Indignation…” Boy, I bet a lot of you are like me. I used to be full of what’s called righteous indignation. I would be so upset. My passions would be riled up by becoming indignant at the injustice of it all, at injustice being done to another person, or cruelty to animals, or eating meat, or whatever the indignation is, the poor of the world. I’d become indignant over it. But it was righteous indignation, I thought, and so it was okay. But then I realized, and this was many years ago before I even discovered the Gnostic Gospels, that righteous indignation isn’t any good either, because it’s a form of passion, and it’s a negative emotion. And this negativity is what we’re trying to get rid of. We do not belong in the world of negativity. Once we accept the Anointed and allow the Third Order of Powers into our soul, then we can put away that sort of negative indignation, because indignation belongs to the Father, it says. God’s indignation is coming. So we leave it up to him. “Judgment is mine, saith the Lord.” That’s a common quote. And it says we must put away indignation. Animosity, that is a negative stance against other people, or a negative stance against certain institutions. Animosity, just pushing it away in negative way. Animosity means bitter hostility. There’s no room for bitterness in someone who’s walking with the Anointed. Or open enmity, acts of hatred. Hatred is bad in all of its forms. And just because you believe that the object of your hatred deserves it, well they may. But it’s not our job to judge them, and it’s not our job to experience animosity towards them. Ultimately, they will be reckoned with. Ultimately, there is a judgment. No one gets away with anything, sooner or later. But it’s not our job to have hostility and hatred. So a hostile feeling or act, or not to be mean of spirit. Malice, that’s plotting against someone. Blasphemy, blasphemy actually refers to rejection of the Holy Spirit. It’s considered the only sin that’s unforgivable, although we as Gnostics believe that all sins are ultimately forgivable. But as long as you blaspheme the Holy Spirit and push the Holy Spirit away, you’re not allowing the forgiveness to come to you. And so that’s why blasphemy is a bad idea. And, obscene speech from your mouth. I’m a veteran, and in the service there was a lot of curse words and a lot of cussing. And it was hard to come home on leave and be around my parents, because every other word out of my mouth had become some sort of obsce… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cydropp.substack.com/subscribe