Christ Is Risen! 🌞
Acts V, 4 – ‘εμενεν’ – ‘emenen’ – from ‘μενω’ – ‘to
remain’. Literally: Not remaining it for yourself, you remained it?
In
other words, Ananias and Sapphira did it in order to show their special
devotion to God, but secretly kept it for themselves (thus, really
trying to deceive the Christians around them, so that they would be
considered similar in their zeal to the apostles themselves).
For more on great fear,
see, in particular, the following article:
20042023.html
There
may be genuine fear, surprise, and horror here.
For the sake of clarity, I would add that Peter did not threaten Ananias and Sapphira, but prophesied about them – that is, in the Spirit he knew what would happen to them, without being their enemy or wishing them harm.
Both of them drew their last breath
after being exposed as trying
to deceive the Holy Spirit. Let us recall that it is the Holy Spirit Who
gives life to people, and also remember the creation of man, when God
breathed into the nostrils of the man the breath of life, and he became
a living soul
(Genesis II, 7). I wrote about this earlier, see the
link:
02032023.html
It is also advisable to recall Jesus’ words about the blasphemy
towards the Holy Spirit, which is unforgivable (according to the
widespread opinion in the Church – until a person repents). See also:
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
In general, the story is very instructive in that we need to take great care to ensure the sincerity of our relationship with God in a broad sense.
For more on John V, 30, see yesterday’s post:
27042023.html
John V, 31 – ‘περι εμαυτου’ – ‘peri emautou’ – ‘about Myself’.
John V, 32, 36, 37, 39, 46 – ‘εμου’ – ‘emou’ – ‘Me’.
John V, 47 – ‘εμοις’ – ‘emois’ – ‘Mine’.
This is a very informative passage. I will briefly mention only the main lines of thought:
The Father testifies about the Son, and the deeds of the Son and the Father, as well as the testimony of John the Baptist, Moses, the Old Testament, and the Scriptures, also confirm this.
Many people rejected Jesus because they did not want to have a living relationship with the Alive God, and many did not seek Jesus for His sake but for healings and miracles.
What people use to justify their rejection of Jesus is actually a
testimony against them. Why is this so? Because the Lord has
providentially placed the testimony of Jesus Christ everywhere, and
those who reject Him simply do not see the depth of God that becomes
apparent in true knowledge. See more about this point in the article
here:
https://sites.google.com/view/rozdumy23/home/isnuvanna-piznaemo-virou
People neglect their true desires – glory from God, great joy in visiting God, knowledge of God, closeness and love of God and for Him. Instead, they tend to replace them with something similar (though rather weak in reality) in creation – human glory and the like.
Christ wants to save people from everything that harms them, even if they are not aware of it.
To the Mother of God in honour of Her Icon from Vyshgorod (Vladimir):
See the link:
21042023.html
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!