14 Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will bring sin on yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits. When you go into any land and walk through the countryside, if people receive you, eat what they set before you, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but what comes out of your mouth that will defile you." [Luke 10:8-9 and Matthew 15:11; Mark 7:15]
The essence of this saying is a corruption of Jesus' original intent (see Matthew 15, etc.). Here the meaning seems to be: If you try to be spiritual, it will do you no good, but if you just live, then you're on the right path. However, fasting, charity and prayer can indeed be valuable. What matters, however, is not knowledge, but faith in the one "who speaks to the Father in our defense -- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (1 John 2:1).
15 Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces and worship him. He is your Father."
While much of the Gospel of Thomas appears to be gnostic, this one passage could be taken as Docetist. Docetism takes its name from the Greek word dokeo (δοκεω) "to seem," and was an ancient heretical view that the Messiah did not actually come into the world in the flesh, but only "seemed" to be here. Docetism is a problem addressed in some of the earliest Christian documents outside the Bible (e.g. Ignatius to the Trallians). Another idea was that the Christ "possessed" the man Jesus at his baptism and then fled from his body during the crucifixion ("why have you forsaken me?"), but Jesus showed that his divine-human nature still exists after his resurrection in his many appearances.
16 Jesus said, "People think I have come to force peace on the world. They do not know that I have come to stir up conflicts on the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there will be five in a house: three against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand alone." [Matthew 10:34-36; Luke 12:51-53]
17 Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the human mind."¹ [1 Cor 2:9; Isaiah 64:4]
¹ Coptic "to the human heart."
Since Paul says "It is written..." before quoting something like this, it is sometimes thought that he was quoting the Gospel of Thomas (no such quote occurs in the Bible apart from 1 Cor 2:9). In fact, Paul was probably quoting something from Jesus that just doesn't occur in the Gospels (Jesus seems to have been interpreting Isaiah 64:4). It is much more likely, given the dates involved, that the quotation from Paul is what the Gospel of Thomas has picked up, not the other way around.
18 The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us how our end will be." Jesus said, "So have you discovered the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, the end will be. Blessed is he who stands at the beginning. He will know the end and will not taste death."
This cyclic attitude shows up in other pseudo-Christian literature. The point seems to be that the beginning and ending are connected. But the beginning isn't for us to "discover," but for God to reveal -- as he has in his Word. And the end isn't for us to know, but to prepare for, and we prepare by sharing the gospel of Jesus with the world.
19 Jesus said, "Blessed is he who was before he became. ¹ If you become my disciples and listen to my words, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."
¹ Coptic "he who came into being before he came into being."
Other gnostic texts also mention the "five trees in paradise." Typically, it's the goal of other religions to contradict Scripture as being incomplete in some way. In Genesis, there are only two trees that are special in some way, and later in Scripture, only the Tree of Life is mentioned (see Revelation 22). Something like this happens in other faiths. However, no matter what others try to add or supplement, the truth is that the Bible is sufficient all by itself for salvation. As Paul told Timothy, "the holy Scriptures... are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). The Bible is complete and sufficient all by itself.
20 The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like." He said to them, "It is like a mustard seed. Although it is the smallest of all seeds, when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky." [Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19]
This appears pretty much as in the Bible.
21 Mary said to Jesus, "What are your disciples like?" He said, "They are like children living in a field that isn't theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Give our field back to us.' They undress in their presence [cp. Ruth 4:7] in order to let them have their field back and they give it back to them. Therefore I say to you, if the owner of a house knows that a thief is coming, he will be on guard before the thief comes and will not let him into the house he owns to steal his possessions. So then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength or robbers might find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come. Let there be an understanding person among you. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with sickle in hand and harvested it. Whoever has ears, let him hear." [Matthew 24:43; Luke 12:39 and Mark 4:26-29]
The last part of this saying seems to be an appropriate application of the parable of the robber (see the references above), as long as what the believer arms himself with is faith -- not a false knowledge.
The children undressing is probably a reference to the Law of the Unsandaled (that's why I inserted a reference to Ruth 4:7), but it isn't applied correctly and might be the result of a misunderstanding of the Jewish law -- at least, this is putting the best construction on it.
The Gospel of Thomas doesn't proclaim the truth. It announces that you -- personally -- don't know the truth. It tells you that unless you buy into what this doctrine is hiding, you can't get to heaven. But the hidden doctrine is never revealed, and the truth is never uncovered. There is no Jesus here. That's why John assures us:
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. (1 John 2:20).
Hold onto the truth of Jesus -- let go of the hidden, the secret, and the unknown. Jesus is all we need.
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