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Glory be to Jesus Christ!
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Paul's testimony about his friend and colleague Timothy was read from the ordinary Apostle.
2 Timothy III, 12 – all who desire to live godly in Jesus Christ will be persecuted
– the word translated as persecuted
(Slavic pushed
) in the original can mean to be fled
, pursued
, persecuted (like criminals)
— that is, it is not necessarily about persecution for the faith with demands to renounce it (although this also happens), but about a general attempt to draw the faithful into evil
in one way or another. The next verse deceiving and being deceived
indicates the state of the spread of sin, and the state of people who, because of this spread, will cause suffering to the faithful.
The parable of the tax collector and the pharisee was read from the Gospel – a continuation of yesterday's. Due to lack of space, I would like to draw attention to two things:
1) as all good people with a conscience testify, the tax collector arouses our sympathy, the desire for him to correct himself, on the other hand, the self-mindedness and self-centeredness of the pharisee repels us. As a result, the righteousness of the pharisee is not enough
for the certainty of his salvation, which he has, just as he is in a deceptive position close to destruction. Instead, the tax collector has every chance to change himself and bring his life for the better, and to build a much deeper and better relationship with God. Recently, I wrote a good essay about the desire for primacy, which is available at the following link:
2) everyone returned to his own house
— that is, they lived separately. If they lived together, it would be a constant temptation for the pharisee to condemn the tax collector, and for the latter one it would be a temptation to be disappointed in pharisee piety
(almost an oxymoron in quotation marks), only formally correct behavior.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!
Source:
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