The disciples said to him, "Your brothers and your mother are standing outside." He said to them, "Those here who do what my Father wants are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will enter my Father's domain." (99 Thomas)

Jesus explains that his intimacy is extended to all who do what his Father wants.

The same scene is reported in the synoptic gospels. There many have perceived a rejection of family. In Thomas the tone suggests an expanded sense of family.

Scholarship on this saying in Thomas and the other gospel versions tends to focus on insiders and outsiders.

I am told the literal Coptic translated above as "Those here" is actually "those-in-these-places." Not just those with Jesus, but those in any place who do what God wants are in relationship with Jesus and God the Father.

We come into relationship with God not by what we believe, not by who we follow, but by what we do.

The synoptic parallels are Mark 3:31-35, Matthew 12: 46-50, and Luke 8:19-21.