🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞
A direct continuation of yesterday’s
reading:
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Romans VII:14 – ‘ειμι’ – ‘eimi’ – (I) ‘am’. It is used for emphasis.
Romans VII:15 – the more literal translation reads: it is not what I
want that I practice (often, repeatedly, consistently do), but what I do
not want, I do (create).
Romans VII, 17, 18, 20, 21 – ‘εμοι’ – ‘emoi’ – ‘to me, by me’.
Romans VII, 19 – here is a reinforcement of the thought of verse 15 -
not what I desire I do good, but what I do not desire (really evil,
actually bad), I practice (repeatedly, often, consistently do).
This is a difficult place, where Paul speaks rather on behalf of
another person (to gain at least some
, according to him, he himself is
in a better state through the grace of the Lord). In this way, Paul
wants his hearers (readers) to quicker agree with his deep thoughts.
In general, we can say that the flesh
here does not refer to the
actual component of human nature created by God, but to the state of
corruption of human nature (like the skins of animals that the Lord gave
Adam and Eve to put on when they were expelled from Paradise because of
the fall and unrepentance). See more about the parallel here:
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And because of this corruption, it is not easy for a person to be
persistent in goodness, even when he or she is aware of it, knows it,
and wants to do it. The susceptibility and inclination to sin, sin
itself, and sinful habits and passions (addictions to sin) are
collectively called the law of sin
.
At the beginning of chapter VIII, Paul reiterates the idea that only through Christ can a person be truly freed (saved, delivered) from it.
A direct continuation of yesterday’s reading:
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I wrote earlier, and I quote:
From the Gospel today I will focus on two verses – Matthew X,
14-15.
We learn about Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis, where Abraham’s nephew Lot lived with his family. The inhabitants of the cities (all but Lot and part of his family) were so corrupt and depraved that instead of being hospitable, they wanted to rape Lot’s guests in an unnatural way, even abusing his daughters. Abraham and his slaves defeated the kings of those cities with God’s help, and the Lord delivered Lot and his family from those cities and turned them into the Dead Sea by fire from heaven, where nothing alive lives (only recently tourists can swim in it), so that plague and contagion of the cities’ inhabitants would not spread further.
See also
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But why such harsh words about rejecting the apostles?
If someone did not receive the apostles who preached the way to
salvation, it was only because of the sin of the inhabitants, with which
they were more familiar, so that neither preaching, nor miracles, nor
example had any effect on people. Their sin was stronger
than their
goodness, and therefore, as was the case with Sodom and Gomorrah,
nothing could hold them back. And then, in the course of history,
nothing can stop them from falling and losing even their humanity
without their repentance.
This is why the Lord warns everyone.
See also the parallel passage in Mark:
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Glory be to you, our God, glory be to you!