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A Lot of Joy from God!

Oleksandr Zhabenko

🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞

Dedicated to Emma Kok.

(Romans II:28 – III:18)

Romans III:7 – ‘εμω’ – ‘emo’ – ‘my’ (deception) (neuter in koine).

Continuation of the reading:
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Paul speaks of Israel being entrusted with God’s words in the Old Testament, but then goes on to say that all are sinners, both Israelites and Hellenists (and in general all people except Jesus; the Mother of God is Pure, but not sinless).

Paul also quotes several psalms in both places, including the well-known psalm of repentance.

The point is that for a righteous person it is a great asset to have God’s words, but for a sinful person the situation differs – he or she does not use this gift properly and therefore becomes subject to God’s judgement.

The quotations are taken in the absolute sense, not in the partial sense, which means that if a person turns away from the fullness of God’s will even a little, he or she violates it; if he or she is a reluctant seeker or does not seek enough, he or she is called a non-seeker; if he or she is not faithful in all things, he or she is called a departed one. All of this is correct in the sense that there is a downfall in every sin, although we often soften our words about the sins of others in order not to hurt people’s feelings or our own. This can be compared to the absolute necessity to hit the target – if you miss even a little bit, it is… still a miss and you don’t hit the target… Whether a shooter is good or not can be seen by how close he or she hits the ten, but if the question is: ten or something else, even a 9 (which is almost the best result in other circumstances) will be a miss. All the quoted psalms are in the same sense.

At first, this may look like something too demanding of a person. But if we imagine a different situation – not all sins are a downfall, there are not worth of fear, insignificant, not worthy of attention sins (I think you can see the logic and the train of thought further), then the very concept of sin loses its real meaning, and a person can easily build compromises with conscience and God.

No, but even a small sin is a sin and is important, it cannot be simply neglected. Even a small lie is a lie, and moreover, from many small lies, under certain conditions, a great deception can arise. And so on. That’s why there is such demandingness, but it is necessary.

One can also say that such demandingness sharpens every moment of human existence, and this can give a tremendous depth of meaning to every moment, at least some of them.

See also:
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/

https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/

(Matthew VI, 31-34; VII, 9-11)

Matthew VI, 34 – ‘κακια’ – ‘kakia’ - (to the day its) ‘evil, bad’.

The first part of chapter VI is about the anxieties and troubles of life, and the second part is about asking God in prayer.

There is a good essay on the former here:
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/en/Beauty.html

For the second, see another essay here:
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/en/PowerOfHuman.html

Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!

Source:
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List of Used Sources