(5) "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of chastity. So do not be ashamed to bear witness to our Lord and to me, his prisoner," he says in his Epistle to Timothy.128 Such should be the "one who cleaves to good," according to the Apostle, "who turns away from evil" and has "unfeigned love." "He who loves another has fulfilled the law." (7) And if the God of whom we bear witness is a "God of hope," then we bear witness to hope and strive for it, "full of goodness and full of gnosis."129

(50:1) The Indian sages said to Alexander the Great: "You can move bodies from place to place, but you cannot force our souls to do what you demand. Fire is considered by men to be the most horrible torture, but we despise it."130 (2) In the same way, Heraclitus preferred "one thing to everything, glory," and left the rest to "gorge themselves like cattle."131

(3) A lot of manual labor lies ahead of man.

He learned to cover the roofs of houses,

White to dig silver and cultivate the land,

Much more can be remembered from what everyone knows.132

[51:1] For ordinary people all these labors are necessary, but the Apostle said to us: "Knowing that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be abolished, that we should no longer be slaves to sin."133 (2) And in another place he says plainly, having in mind a model for faith that is understandable to the majority: "I think that we, the last apostles, God predestined, as it were, to be condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle for the whole world, for angels and for men. 3 Even to this day we endure hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and beatings, and wandering, and laboring with our hands. They slander us, we bless, they persecute us, we endure. They blaspheme us, we pray, we are like dung to the world."134 (52, 1) Similarly, Plato in the Republic says that a righteous man, even if he is tortured on the rack, even if his eyes are burned out, will still be happy.135 (2) The Gnostic never hopes for the accidents of this life, but, in spite of all vicissitudes, is happy and blessed, as befits a true friend of God. 3 Having suffered disgrace and exile, having endured the confiscation of his property, and finally death, he will never lose his liberty, but will manifest in all things his love for God, which "bears all things and endures all things,"136 thus confirming that Divine Providence has decreed all things for good. (53, 1) "I beg you, follow me," it is therefore said. The first step to salvation is instruction, accompanied by fear, by which we are removed from all evil, followed by hope, by virtue of which we choose the best, and finally, love, as it belongs, brings everything to perfection, completing the circle of Gnostic education.137

2 From the point of view of the Hellenes, I cannot understand why, the whole course of things is determined by an irrational necessity which must be submitted willy-nilly. 3 Euripides138 says of this:

Listen to my words, wife! That's right,

Что тяжкого труда муж смертный не минует.

Хоронит сыновей, затем рождает новых,

Затем уходит сам. Такая смертным участь.

(4) И далее:

Все должно претерпеть, что свойственно природе.