Orthodox readings for 15 November 2005

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Colossians, Chapter 2, verses 20-23

²⁰ and legal ceremonies, which are ended in Christ

²⁰Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

²¹(Touch not; taste not; handle not;

²²Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

²³Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Read more:Colossians, Chapter 3

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2:20 Therefore - The inference begun, Col 2:16; is continued.A new inference follows, Col 3:1.If ye are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world - That is, If ye are dead with Christ, and so freed from them, why receive ye ordinances - Which Christ hath not enjoined, from which he hath made you free.

2:21 Touch not - An unclean thing. Taste not - Any forbidden meat. Handle not - Any consecrated vessel.

2:22 Perish in the using - Have no farther use, no influence on the mind.

2:23 Not sparing the body - Denying it many gratifications, and putting it to many inconveniences. Yet they are not of any real value before God, nor do they, upon the whole, mortify, but satisfy, the flesh. They indulge our corrupt nature, our self - will, pride, and desire of being distinguished from others.

Colossians, Chapter 3, verses 1-3

¹ He showeth where we should seek Christ

¹If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

²Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

³For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Read more:Colossians, Chapter 3

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3:1 If ye are risen, seek the things above - As Christ being risen, immediately went to heaven.

3:3 For ye are dead - To the things on earth. And your real, spiritual life is hid from the world, and laid up in God, with Christ - Who hath merited, promised, prepared it for us, and gives us the earnest and foretaste of it in our hearts.

Luke, Chapter 11, verses 34-41

¹⁹ preacheth to the people, ³⁷ and reprehendeth the outward show of holiness in the Pharisees, scribes and lawyers

³⁴The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.

³⁵Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

³⁶If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.

³⁷And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.

³⁸And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.

³⁹And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.

⁴⁰Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?

⁴¹But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 11

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11:34 But when thine eye is evil - When thou aimest at any thing else, thou wilt be full of folly, sin, and misery. On the contrary, Mat 6:22.

11:36 If thy whole body be full of light - If thou art filled with holy wisdom, having no part dark, giving way to no sin or folly, then that heavenly principle will, like the clear flame of a lamp in a room that was dark before, shed its light into all thy powers and faculties.

11:39 Now ye Pharisees - Probably many of them were present at the Pharisee's house. Mat 23:25.

11:41 Give what is in them - The vessels which ye clean, in alms, and all things are clean to you. As if he had said, By acts directly contrary to rapine and wickedness, show that your hearts are cleansed, and these outward washings are needless.

NOTES

In the Gospel we find no angry denunciations by Jesus directed at thieves, extortioners, prostitutes, unfaithful wives, occupying forces, or other sinners. The only class He denounces is the scribes and Pharisees. What had these people done wrong...

Paul draws attention to the fact that the Christian's life is directly connected with the life and person of Christ Himself, "hidden in Christ," as the apostle calls it. This is understandable: the Kingdom itself is inseparable from the relationships that bind the Son with the Father, and still more is the life of each individual Christian inseparable from them. This life is visible to the world to the extent that...

Paul draws attention to the fact that the Christian's life is directly connected with the life and person of Christ Himself, "hidden in Christ," as the apostle calls it. This is understandable: the Kingdom itself is inseparable from the relationships that bind the Son with the Father, and still more is the life of each individual Christian inseparable from them. This life is visible to the world to the extent that the Kingdom is visible to it at all, and the Kingdom opens to the world as the world is transformed. To the extent that the world is transformed, the life of the Kingdom, and therefore the life of its inhabitants, becomes visible to it; to the extent that it still remains untransformed, that life remains unknown to it. But on the day of the world's complete transformation and the Savior's return, everything that was previously invisible will become visible and plain to all, so that nothing hidden from the world will remain.

However, in order for the life of a particular Christian to be full, it must not be reduced merely to passive abiding in the Kingdom, in the space of the relationships that bind the Father and the Son. In any case, passive abiding in the Kingdom is scarcely possible at all, since the Kingdom itself exists only in continuous dynamism, insofar as every relationship is always dynamic and can exist only by being constantly renewed. But besides this external dynamism, the Christian's life must also necessarily contain an internal one, connected with spiritual renewal and the transformation of the Christian's own human nature. After full transformation, every person's nature must become the same as the Savior's human nature became after His Resurrection. But transformation is not a one-time act; it is a process connected with the person of the Savior Himself, with His life, and with the process by which the Kingdom enters the world.

The completion of the Christian's path, and therefore of the transformation of his human nature, coincides with the completion of the transformation of all the rest of nature, of all creation. And of course this path is not limited to the bounds of a person's earthly life, but continues after that life is finished. Yet it begins at the present, earthly stage of the path, and Paul describes it figuratively as a person's "stripping off" his former nature and "putting on" a new one, corresponding to the spiritual state that abiding in the Kingdom presupposes. Of course, a change in a person's physical nature is impossible at the present stage of the path, but a change in the person's psychic, soul nature is entirely possible. This is what the apostle reminds the recipients of his letter about, calling them to exclude from their life sexual immorality in all its forms, impurity, greed, anger, and everything else that is characteristic of human psychic nature in its fallen state. And if they succeed in this, then they will have taken the first step on the path toward the complete transformation of their nature, and therefore toward the fullness of the life of the Kingdom.

The Savior's words addressed to the Pharisees and teachers of the Torah, who in those days were usually called "scribes," may seem too harsh, just as they seemed to some of His listeners. But the question was too serious, and...

The Savior's words addressed to the Pharisees and teachers of the Torah, who in those days were usually called "scribes," may seem too harsh, just as they seemed to some of His listeners. But the question was too serious, and things had to be called by their proper names. The accusations are serious: in essence, Jesus reproaches both the religious leadership of the Synagogue of that time (the Pharisees) and the outstanding teachers of the Torah for not observing themselves what they call others to observe. A strange accusation, it would seem: after all, in the Gospels it is precisely the Pharisees and teachers of the Torah who are shown as zealots for the Torah; they are the ones who constantly reproach Jesus for violating one or another of its prescriptions. But Jesus clearly identifies the problem: external religiosity devoid of spiritual content. This very religiosity became the main problem of synagogue spiritual life in the Gospel era. Many Pharisees adhered to such religiosity, and many teachers of the Torah taught it to the people.

There was, of course, an alternative, but only a few represented it. The New Testament books have preserved the names of some of them for us: Nicodemus, Gamaliel... But they did not determine the general atmosphere of synagogue life at that time. And so it turned out that calls to spiritual life were accompanied by instruction in a life that was not so much spiritual as religious. People were taught not how to acquire inner wholeness and inner light (the very "clear eye" of which Jesus speaks), but how to observe ritual prescriptions. Of course, these prescriptions also did not appear for no reason, and behind them stands a certain spiritual experience that gave rise to them; but by that time the experience had already been forgotten, while the prescriptions remained.

And now the people are offered a life of religiosity alone, without spiritual content; prescriptions without communion with God. Meanwhile, the teachers themselves feel like masters of the Torah: after all, they are the ones who comment on it and interpret it; people come to them for advice; it is their authority in the eyes of ordinary people that is unquestioned.

Not all of them, of course, were like this, but there were enough of them for a vast number of people to become locked inside a circle of formal religiosity with no possibility of leaving it. And every free word from God, any breath of God's Spirit in this environment, is perceived as something unnecessary and even dangerous: it undermines the monopoly of teachers and interpreters over the Torah, and therefore over spiritual life. It is no accident that Jesus tells those who build monuments to the ancient prophets that they are no better than their fathers, who killed those same prophets. They have no need of living spiritual life, just as their fathers had no need of it. And that means they have no need of the Kingdom either.

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