“Should you who possess everything not know yourself? If you do not know yourself, you will not enjoy what you own. But know yourself and what you have enjoy.

“The perfect human can neither be restrained nor seen. If they see him, they can stop him, so there is no way to grace but to put on the perfect light and become perfect. All who put on that garment will enter the kingdom. This is the perfect light. We must become perfect before leaving this world. Who is rich and has not thrown it off will not share in the kingdom but will go as imperfect into the middle. Only Jesus knows where that will end.

“Now we have the manifest things of creation. We say, ‘The strong are they who are held in high regard, and the obscure are the weak who are despised.’ Contrast the manifest things of truth: they are weak and despised, whereas the hidden things are strong and held in high regard. The mysteries of truth are revealed, though, in type and image. The bridal chamber remains hidden. It is the holy in the holy. The veil at first concealed how god controls creation, but when the veil is torn and things inside are revealed, this house will be left desolate, or rather it will be destroyed. But the whole inferior godhead will not flee from these places into the holies of the holies, for it cannot mix with the pure light and the perfect fullness. Rather, it will be under the wings of the cross and under its arms.”

-The Gospel of Philip

Knowledge of Self

It doesn’t seem possible to many people that they don’t know themselves, but the fact is that most of us only know part of what we truly are. We generally know little about our spiritual Self, and not as much as we think we know about our physical self. For example, most people don’t know the health conditions of all the organs of their body. Nor do they know the fastest speed they can run or the heaviest weight they can lift. We might know the fastest speed we have run in the past, but we would probably run even faster if a bear were chasing us. Likewise, we may know the heaviest weight we have lifted under normal circumstances, but there are plenty of stories of people showing what is considered superhuman strength in an emergency, such as when their child is trapped under a car. As for knowledge of spiritual matters, most of us only have opinions on such things, not known facts gained by awakening and developing our spiritual Self.

Put on the Perfect Light

I think it is misleading to say that we should put on the perfect Light as if it is a garment that we wear on the outside only. In actual fact, when we are exposed to this Light, and learn how to take it in, it permeates every part, every organ, every cell of our physical body and our spiritual body as well. The Perfect Light is the Light that comes from God and reaches us through the intermediary of the Spiritual Sun. We might say that in a way, the Spiritual Sun is like a window between Heaven and Earth.

Philip says “ We must become perfect before leaving this world.” That is not exactly true, and probably not even possible. What is true is that we must start the process of becoming perfect by awakening and developing our spirits as much as possible while we are still in the physical world. Then the process can continue after the death of the physical body until we do reach perfection.

The Strong and the Weak

Philip tells us that the worldly people think that those who are “held in high regard” are considered strong, while those who are not are considered weak. He then tells us that in reality, the truth is often just the opposite. Those who have great power and esteem in the physical realm are generally weak on the spiritual side, while those who are spiritually strong, are not held in high regard in the physical realm. But the spirit is eternal, while the physical is temporary, so one who spends his life gathering esteem and wealth on the physical plane is gathering a treasure of shadows. The one who practices love, humility, and seeks eternal truth is the one who is ultimately strong in an eternal way.

“Each one will speak concerning the place from which they have come forth, and to the region from which they received their essential being they will hasten to return once again and receive from that place, the place where they stood before, and they will taste of that place, be nourished, and grow. And their own place of rest is their fullness. All the emanations from the father, therefore, are fullnesses, and all his emanations have their roots in the one who caused them all to grow from himself. He assigned their destinies. They, then, became manifest individually that they might be perfected in their own thought, for that place to which they extend their thought is their root, which lifts them upward through all heights to the Father. They reach his head, which is rest for them, and they remain there near to it as though to say that they have touched his face by means of embraces. But they do not make this plain. For neither have they exalted themselves nor have they diminished the glory of the Father, nor have they thought of him as small, nor bitter, nor angry, but as absolutely good, unperturbed, sweet, knowing all the spaces before they came into existence and having no need of instruction. Such are they who possess from above something of this immeasurable greatness, as they strain toward that unique and perfect One who exists there for them. And they do not go down to Hades. They have neither envy nor moaning, nor is death in them. But they rest in him who rests, without wearying themselves or becoming confused about truth. But they, indeed, are the truth, and the Father is in them, and they are in the Father, since they are perfect, inseparable from him who is truly good.”

-the Gospel of Truth

Our Origin

Our Origin is not in the physical world. Our physical body originates here, but our true Self originated in the Realm of Spirit. And since time doesn’t exist in the spiritual realm, we existed as spirits long before we descended into the physical realm. As the quote says, the spiritual realm is the home of our essential being which is our spirit.

Hasten to Return

Some of us hasten to return to the spiritual realm, not by dying, but by living the Way of God. When we reach that realm, even for brief moments, we are nourished and grow. When we absorb the light of the Spiritual Sun, our spirits do grow and reach higher levels of consciousness.

Emanations From the Father

The emanations from God have been given different names, including Grace, God’s Word, God’s Wisdom, etc. All these emanations come to us through God’s Light and that comes to us through the Spiritual Sun. This also seems to refer to the creations of God, the Angels of Light, and the Spirits of humans.

Immeasurable Greatness

Those who partake of God’s immeasurable greatness by absorbing the Light of the Spiritual Sun do not go down to Hades when they die, but up to higher and higher dimensions until they reach the highest level where they become one with God, one with The All. They do know truth and wisdom and are not confused by the opinions of men. When you have received Truth and Wisdom directly from the source, you cannot dispute it.