The Cross and Death

1. I, however, responded, and said to him: “Lord, we will be able to obey you if you desire, because we have left our fathers, and our mothers, and our villages, and have followed you.

2. So let us not to be tested by the devil, the evil one.”

3. The Lord responded, and said: “What have all of you gained if you do the will of the Father, yet it is not bestowed on you from him as a gift when you are being tested by Satan?

4. If all of you, however, are harassed by Satan and persecuted, and you do his will, I [say] that he will love you, and make you equal to me, and consider [you] as having become beloved by his providence through your own choice.

5. So will you not stop loving the flesh and fearing sufferings?

6. Or are you unaware that you have not yet been mistreated and falsely accused, and have not yet been confined in prison, and sentenced illegally, and crucified by the mind, and buried in the sand, like myself, by the evil one?

7. Will you dare pardon the flesh, you whom the Spirit surrounds like a wall?

8. If you take into account how long the world was there ‹before› you were, and how long it will be there after you (are gone), you will discover that your life (lasts) but one day, and your sufferings but one hour, because the good will not enter into the world.

9. So despise death, and think of life.

10. Recall my cross and my death, and you will live.”

11. I, however, responded, and I said to him: “Lord, do not speak to us about the cross and death, because they are far from you.”

12. The Lord responded, and said: “Truly I say I to you, no one will be saved without being faithful to (the example of) my cross.

13. Those, however, who have been faithful to (the example of) my cross, the kingdom of God belongs to them.

14. So be seekers after death, like the dead who seek after life, because what they seek will be revealed to them, and what will there be to disturb them?

15. Regarding you, when you investigate death, it will inform you concerning election.

16. Truly I say to you, not one of those who are afraid of death will be saved, because the kingdom ‹of God› belongs to those who are put to death.

17. Become better than I.

18. Make yourselves to be like the son of the holy Spirit!”