🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞
Romans I, 8 – ‘ολω’ – ‘holo’ – (in the) ‘whole, entire’.
Romans I:12 – ‘συμπαρακληθηναι’ – ‘symparaklethenai’ – ‘to share the consolation with’. ‘εμου’ – ‘emou’ – ‘me’.
Paul writes of his sincere desire to come to the Romans, and praises their faith, their work in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and thanks God.
Continuation of yesterday’s reading. See the link:
09062023.html
On rain and sunshine, kindness and righteousness, see here:
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
When the Lord says do not resist evil
(literal translation), and
then goes on to say to love your enemies, He means that the driving
force behind our actions, thoughts, our lives – internal and external -
should be love for God, for people, and not hatred of anyone. It is
fundamentally impossible to achieve perfection, to overcome sins, if not
on the basis of true love (beyond it).
That is, love must win, and this is the state of perfection.
We need to stop at the words do not resist evil
. This does not mean
to stop fighting the sins of other people. But we should not fight to
their damage
, but for their salvation, conversion, repentance,
purification, etc.
Nor does the Lord want us to compete
to see who is stronger and
more enduring in their convictions – faithful Christians or bitter
enemies. Such comparisons may arise, but they should not be the goal or
content of the struggle.
Any such focus on evil (even if it is with the intention of
overcoming
it) does not bring a person closer to the perfect God;
instead of moving towards God, growing, a person turns their life into a
struggle against evil (yet this is not the same thing).
Let’s look at God: if the Lord considered the destruction and eradication of evil to be the main thing in the world, He would immediately stop all evil, and even before it began, He would not let it appear. But God… is patient for the salvation of people. He gives freedom so that it can develop towards Him and blissful eternity. God judges evil, defeats evil, restrains evil, destroys evil, stops evil, directs its consequences to good, but most importantly, He gives creation the freedom to approach Him.
This may be seen as the positivity
of Christianity. No, the meaning
of Christian life is not in the struggle against sins, but in getting
closer to God, in love. We should not swap places
between the main and
the important.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!