🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞
The weekday readings of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans conclude, the conclusion of the Epistle itself.
Romans XVI:17 – ‘εμαθετε’ – ‘emathete’ – ‘learned, ascertained’.
Romans XVI, 22 mentions Tertius, an apostle of 70, Paul’s co-worker, who wrote down the epistle from the words of the apostle of the Gentiles.
The first part of the reading warns against false teachers, against
discord, divisions, people who do not seek the knowledge of the truth
but are guided by their own other motives. This is an important
distinction, because if people disagree because they are seeking a truth
that they do not fully know, then this can (though it does not always,
and this also needs to be given due consideration) make good sense – so
that those who are experienced may be found among you
, as Paul says
elsewhere. But when people do not seek the truth as such, then this
needs to be noted and care taken not to be tempted and not to tempt
others.
The second part is also a greeting, like the beginning of the chapter. Twice Paul, through Tertius, wishes for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is also a reminder of the Second Coming.
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Matthew XIII, 13 – literally, For looking they do not see, and
hearing they do not hear, and do not understand.
Matthew XIII, 14 – literally, approximately the following: Hearing
you will hear, but not understand, and seeing you will see, but not
clearly and distinctly discern.
Matthew XIII, 15 literally reads approximately as follows: They
heard with difficulty and closed their eyes, so that (if only) they
would at least once ever see with their eyes and would hear with their
ears and would understand in their heart, and would be turned, – and I
will cure them.
It is important that the Lord speaks of Himself in the
future tense – this gives hope not only to those who have already been
turned, but also to those who are on the way to it.
We can say that Christ wants everyone to understand, to see, to know, to learn, to be turned, and He cures people, but people do not understand, do not see, and do not hear. Therefore, for Christ, everything is clear, and He reveals it to people, but for people, everything is a parable to a certain extent, everything needs to be thought about and understood.
Christ goes on to say that His hearers already have the happiness of seeing and hearing Him.
Then He explains the parable in its immediate and direct meaning and intention (which does not exclude other meanings).
To the Venerable Martin of Turov:
For the readings from the Apostle, see the link:
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
There is also a good discussion of readiness for the coming of Christ
there.
Regarding the Gospel:
I also wrote earlier about the heavenly treasure in relation to a Matthew’s parallel passage of the Sermon on the Mount.
In order to avoid quoting a rather lengthy comparison and reasoning, I will only briefly summarise my thoughts: 1) the fulfilment of the Gospel’s commandments leads to receiving the source of true heavenly joy; 2) this does not mean that a person is necessarily saved, but that God grants a certain enduring joy to a person; 3) joys that are not connected with the fact that a person fulfils the Gospel commandments may fade away and disappear completely; 4) all this is described in metaphors.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!