Three-year Bible reading plan for 21 April 2012

Kulakov Translation (ru)

Kulakov Translation (ru)

Послание к Римлянам, Глава 12, стихи 9-21

⁹ Жизнь в любви и мире

⁹ Любовь ваша да будет нелицемерной, отвращайтесь от зла и твердо держитесь добра! ¹⁰ Будьте преданны друг другу в братской любви, других почитайте выше, чем себя самих. ¹¹ Не ослабевайте в усердии, духом пламенейте^*, служите Господу. ¹² Радуйтесь в надежде, в испытаниях будьте стойки, в молитве - постоянны. ¹³ Помогайте братьям вашим^*, когда оказываются они в нужде, и будьте всегда гостеприимны.

¹⁴ Благословляйте гонителей ваших, благословляйте, а не проклинайте. ¹⁵ С радующимися радуйтесь и с плачущими плачьте. ¹⁶ Относитесь участливо друг к другу, не впадайте в высокомерие и держитесь смиренных^*. Не мните о себе.

¹⁷ Никому за зло не воздавайте злом, и то, что вы печетесь только о добром, пусть будет для всех очевидным. ¹⁸ Со всеми людьми, насколько это зависит от вас, будьте в мире. ¹⁹ Не мстите за себя, возлюбленные мои, но предоставьте всё гневу Божьему. Ибо написано: «Мое возмездие. Я воздам»^*, - говорит Господь. ²⁰ И более того:
«Если враг твой голоден, накорми его;
если жаждет, напои его;
поступая так, горящие угли соберешь ты ему на голову»^*.

²¹ Не дай злу победить тебя, но побеждай его добром.

Read more:Послание к Римлянам, Глава 13

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NOTES

Evil can affect us in many different ways: through enmity and violence from other people, catastrophes, illness, death... But none of this defeats us as long as...

Every Christian knows that his work is witness, witness to Christ and to the Kingdom that Christ brought into the world. And the more actively he bears witness, the more people around him will be saved. But what is witness? Usually...

Every Christian knows that his work is witness, witness to Christ and to the Kingdom that Christ brought into the world. And the more actively he bears witness, the more people around him will be saved. But what is witness? Usually by witness we mean words and actions that can let those around us understand what the Kingdom is and what kind of life its inhabitants live. But what about the people to whom we are bearing witness? Is the Kingdom what they are thinking about?

The question may seem strange, since every Christian knows that it is precisely in the Kingdom that all difficulties are overcome and all problems are resolved. No religion, of course, will help here, but participation in the fullness of the Kingdom can help. It is no accident that healings become one of the main witnesses to the power of the Kingdom during the time of the Savior's earthly ministry.

Of course, every healing turns out to be a witness. But why healings specifically? The simplest answer is that this is what people expected first of all. More than that, some of them, and perhaps most of them, at first expected from Jesus only healing once they had heard about Him, and only after receiving what they wanted did they begin to think about something greater, though not all did and not always. But Jesus did not begrudge these people the Kingdom, its power, or its life. He understood that until a person is convinced that the problem that had poisoned his whole life up to that point can be resolved, he will not believe in any Kingdom as a reality and will not accept it as reality.

And the apostle, as can be seen, understands this very well too. Witness to the Kingdom, however paradoxical it may sound, must begin not with abstract words about the Kingdom, and not even with one's own experience of life in it, but with the person to whom one has to bear witness, with his life, with his problems. But not, of course, in order simply to talk about what hurts and tear the wounds open even more, but in order to testify to him about the possibility of resolving his problems and changing his life if he decides to take a step after Christ. Not in order to become an adherent of some religion new to him, which most likely will not help him at all, but in order to become an inhabitant of His Kingdom, where problems, of course, do not disappear by themselves as if by magic, but where they can find their resolution.

Describing the life of the Kingdom and of those who share in it, Paul emphasizes a very...

Describing the life of the Kingdom and of those who share in it, Paul emphasizes a very important feature of our age, the age of the coming Kingdom, which, as it is revealed in ever greater fullness, includes more and more new inhabitants.

Earlier, speaking about the ways God acts in the world, the apostle, referring to the Torah, drew his readers' attention to the fact that God can act even through those who oppose Him; but in that case it was already an action not of God's love, but of God's power. Now the picture, at first glance, changes: the action of God's love is quite obvious, and Paul describes its manifestations in considerable detail and vividness, both in relations among brothers and in the relations of Christians with those who do not yet know the Kingdom (vv. 9-18).

But the apostle does not mention manifestations of the action of God's power like those Paul speaks about when referring to texts from Exodus. On the contrary, he forbids revenge, undoubtedly following here the teaching of Jesus Himself, and proposes putting it off until God Himself directly manifests His power and carries out His judgment (vv. 19-21). But judging by everything Paul says about the Kingdom and the Savior's return, one must think that the final judgment over God's enemies, and therefore over the enemies of the faithful, is postponed until the end of time.

At first glance it may appear that in this way God exposes His people to attack, since in that case the faithful will not soon have to wait for God's judgment. On the other hand, such a way of acting in our fallen world is evidently the only possible one. Indeed, one can speak of God's final judgment only when a person is in the Kingdom or before the face of the Kingdom, and of the Kingdom revealed in all its fullness.

Of course, God already sees every heart. But the history of the Kingdom is only beginning; it has not yet been revealed so fully as to transform to the end our world, which is still not free from sin. This means that the earlier history, in which the choice of a path meant only the choice of a path, has not entirely ended. The old world has ceased to be the only reality of history, but it still makes up a certain part of it. Therefore every choice made by a person in this dual and divided world cannot be considered final, unless we are speaking of those who have chosen the Kingdom and gone their way to the end. Everyone else still has, until the Savior's return, a chance to change his mind, to change his decision and his choice.

Then they must also be given time to use this chance. By postponing His judgment, God gives them time so that all the possibilities for the salvation of each person may be used to the end. For those who are already in the Kingdom, the path of salvation is open. Now the time has come for them to think about those who do not yet know this path, so that the Savior may truly be Savior for everyone who can still be saved.

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