🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞
Romans I, 28 – ‘αδοκιμον’ – ‘adokimon’ -
‘unverified, which did not pass the test’ (mind). ‘τα μη καθηκοντα’ -
‘ta me kathekonta’ – ‘those (things) that are not suitable, that are
inconvenient, that are not proper’. People’s doubts about the cognition
of God and the truth are called unverified
, and contranatural sins are
called inconvenient, improper, not suitable
.
Romans II, 5 – ‘θησαυριζεις’ – ‘thesaurizeis’ – ‘lay up, store up riches, treasures’ (of wrath).
The continuation of yesterday’s reading is immediate, but divided
into two days so as not to have too much reading. See about yesterday’s
reading:
07062023.html
Paul lists in detail the various sins, describes what happens to
people who give themselves over to passions and sins, do not repent, and
instead of the correction granted by God’s patience and love, they grow
further and further away from God. The place is consonant with the
messages of the Apostle Peter and Jude, which I wrote about earlier, see
the links:
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
15042023.html
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
Matthew V, 28 – ‘εμοιχευσεν’ – ‘emoicheusen’ - ‘has already committed adultery’ – past tense (aorist) of ‘μοιχευω’ - ‘moicheuo’ – ‘to commit adultery’. The aorist indicates an action in the past that has no direct connection with the present, often a completed and often single action in the past (although not always, often with some uncertainty about these aspects).
Literal translation: everyone who looks (now) at a woman to (for,
with the purpose of) lust (rather a completed action than just
lust”, in
the infinitive, can also mean simply the general action of desiring
a
woman in the sexual sense without specification) for her has already
committed adultery (a completed action in the past) in his heart.”
It must be said that these words about the heart are similar in
meaning to the expulsion of the merchants from the temple, where the
Lord Jesus Christ said: My house will be called a house of prayer, but
you are making it a cave of thieves
(Matthew XXI, 12-17). That is, like
the house of prayer
, the cave of thieves
, the heart becomes either
a house (space and time, in general – circumstances) of fidelity
or a
cave (place and time, in general – circumstances) of adultery,
treachery
. This is indicated by the use of the preposition εν
(in
).
It goes on to speak of temptations and the struggle against them (victory over them).
Here I further quote on temptation from the work On Adultery. The
Full Version
in Ukrainian (see:
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/uk/%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8E%D0%B1-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D1%96%D1%8F.html
): Christ says that woe (very badly) to the world because of
temptation. And especially to the person through whom temptations come.
Why? For several reasons.
Temptation can lead to a fall, perishing, and even to the death of many people or entire groups of people.
Speaking of victory over temptation, Christ says that it is
better for you
, but in the final analysis, you lose. The right hand,
the right eye, the right leg – if you win, at best you lose only these.
At worst, you perish completely, along with them. So, temptation is
associated with loss. Yes, it’s better to overcome it than to give in,
but the best thing is to be free of temptation. Then you won’t lose
anything.
It seems that we need to distinguish between temptations that are internal in origin and external. With regard to the former, we can confidently say that it is better to be without them. The latter (e.g. temptations from the evil one) do not indicate a tendency to sin, but rather the weakness of nature. These, if they are properly overcome, bring glory. At the same time, we need to remember that very often the latter are combined with the former, and then it is not really clear what is better: with or without them. For example, the Apostle James says that whoever overcomes temptation will receive a crown. But they would receive a better crown if (by virtue of their purity and faithfulness, as well as God’s will) they did not have such a temptation and did not succumb to it. The same apostle says that God is not tempted, and he also says that everyone is tempted by his own lust. So it is good to overcome lust and temptation, for this there is a crown. But… it is better that the former simply do not exist. Similarly, the state of the innocent who do not sin and those who have sinned but repented is different. The former is better. But if we look at the temptation of Christ by the devil in the desert, we will see that it was desirable for both God and the devil. For the Holy Spirit led Christ into the desert, but the devil rejoiced at this opportunity. But being defeated, the latter was put to shame by Christ, Who lost nothing from temptation.
(End of quote)
Returning to the words about the heart and adultery, a good work for
understanding the commandment is the following:
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/en/Adultery-briefly.html
To understand why the Lord speaks of the heart in this way, we also
need to understand that the heart is able to bypass
, to transcend the
conventions of this world, including time, space, and circumstances.
Therefore, while sins in deeds are often prevented by circumstances, a person can still sin in the heart.
There is a separate reading on divorce that deals with the issue in
more depth. For now, I will only note that the value of Marriage is
unique – there is no example to compare with in the sense of similarity
(i.e. Marriage will differ significantly from everything else). And as a
unique, special value, Marriage has its own rules of preservation
that
distinguish it from everything else. Since man discovers so much through
comparison, one needs to recognise the limitations of this approach. We
need to put aside many comparisons and trust God to be true to His
words.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!