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A Lot of Joy from God!

Oleksandr Zhabenko

🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞

Dedicated to Emma Kok.

To the Cross of the Lord:
(1 Corinthians I, 18-24; John XIX, 6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35)
For more information about these readings, please see the following links:
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(2 Corinthians II, 3-15)

2 Corinthians II, 3 – ‘εμη’ – ‘eme’ - ‘my’.

2 Corinthians II, 14 – ‘ημας’ – ‘emas’ – (makes) ‘us’. ‘ημων’ - ‘emon’ – (through) ‘us’.

A passage considered to be directly related to 1 Corinthians. There Paul taught to break communion with a brother in Christ who had committed the public sin of fornication. The Corinthians obeyed Paul, but the brother showed sincere and deep repentance, sorrowfully accepted penance, was converted, and suffered much because of the absence of Christian association with him. So here Paul writes to show love to such a repentant sinner and forgive him. Paul had made a painful judgement, and now he shows mercy and asks for forgiveness.

The important point here is that God’s intention is that the church’s punishments and penance should not be cruel under any circumstances. The faithful must not be cruel under any circumstances. It can be very difficult to distinguish between cruelty and justice, the fight against evil and the desire for revenge, and so on, and Satan, knowing this, tries very hard to take advantage of these difficulties. Paul warns us about this and teaches us to be merciful, not cruel.

For more information on the topics of compassion, mercy and the fight against evil, anger and related topics, please see the following links:
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14042023.html

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

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It must be said that discipline was very high among the first Christians, and over time it softened. The church tries to be open to different people, because the Lord commands us to try to seek those who are lost.

Open doors is a figurative expression that means the absence of obvious obstacles, accessibility.

The odour of knowledge – a human being is able to smell the odour, at least at first, even without wanting to. Therefore, of all the senses, Paul chooses the sense of smell when he says that the preaching of the faith by the apostles is like a smell that cannot be simply ignored or overlooked.

(Matthew XXIII, 13-22)

Matthew XXIII, 13 – ‘εμπροσθεν’ – ‘emprosthen’ - ‘in the face, before’.

Christ exposes the Pharisees and scribes for their hypocrisy. More about this is written at the link and other references cited there:
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Now I would also say that the Lord had to expose the sins of the Pharisees and scribes, because otherwise they might have thought that these sins were not so important that they should be spoken of openly. Christ exposes those sins like the prophets, but as the God-man, as the One who knows everything, including the hearts of those people.

To the martyrs Maccabees, Solomonia, and Eleazar:
(Hebrews XI, 33 - XII, 2; Matthew X, 32-36; XI, 1)
For more frequent readings from the Apostle, see the link:
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Also cited therein:
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/en/PowerOfHuman.html

https://sites.google.com/view/rozdumy23/home/isnuvanna-piznaemo-virou

Hebrews XI, 36 – ‘εμπαιγμων’ – ‘empaigmon’ – ‘mocking, ridiculing’.

For the Gospel reading, see here:
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Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!

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

List of Used Sources