1 If you also desire this faith, first grasp full knowledge of the Father. 2 For God loved men for whose sake He made the world, to whom He subjected all things that are in the earth, to whom He gave reason and mind, whom alone He permitted to look up to heaven, whom He created after His own image, to whom He sent His only begotten Son,⁠a to whom He promised the kingdom which is in heaven, and will give it to those that have loved Him. 3 And when you have attained to this full knowledge, with what joy do you think that you will be filled, or how will you love Him that so loved you before?⁠b 4 And loving Him you will be an imitator of His goodness. And do not marvel that a man can be an imitator of God. He can, if God wills it. 5 For happiness does not consist in lordship over one's neighbors, nor in desiring to have more than weaker men, nor in possessing wealth and using force on inferiors; nor can anyone imitate God in these matters; no, these lie outside His greatness. 6 But whoever takes upon himself the burden of his neighbor, whoever desires to benefit one that is worse off in that in which he himself is superior, whoever by supplying to those that are in need possessions which he received from God becomes a God to those who receive them from him, he is an imitator of God. 7 Then, though you are placed on earth, you shall see that God lives in heaven; then you shall begin to declare the mysteries of God; then you shall both love and admire those that are punished because they will not deny God; then you shall condemn the deceit and error of the world; when you shall perceive the true life which is in heaven, when you shall despise the apparent death which is here on earth, when you shall fear the real death, which is reserved for those that shall be condemned to the eternal fire that shall punish those delivered over to it to the end. 8 Then you shall admire those who endure for righteousness' sake the fire that is for a season, and shall count them blessed when you perceive that fire ...