Main news for 17 September 2017

Paul's words about this joy, that causes to him the possibility to be able to have confidence on his Corinthian brothers, can be understood in two ways. On one hand, it can be about this ordinary human joy, which feels the one who knows that he has reliable assistants, associates and partners, in whom he has no doubt. If the Church was simply another religious organization, the words of the apostle should have probably been understood particularly only so.

Paul sees in the Church not a religious organization, but what he himself, calls "the body of Christ", and all the relationships between Christians are always regarded in particular in such a context. And here the main thing is not much in the oneness of mind, as in the oneness of the spirit. In fact, one can speak about the oneness of mind with regard to the situation, when collide various points of view on certain questions, theoretical or practical, and during long disputes and discussions, groups of partisans or opponents of a point of view are formed.

Here, of course, the change of opinion of one of the partisans of any conception on any of the examined questions means the loss of one of the groups of one of its members. The oneness of spirit is another thing: it comes here to speak about the unity of the spiritual life, than about the unity of opinions. Furthermore: in this case, even the though enough estimations of any acts committed by man are not in themselves the cause of the rupture of relations. The only reason of such rupture is the unwillingness of the one, who aspires to it, to continue to live the same life.

Actually, only such unwillingness can cut a person from the body of Christ, separate him from the Church. And the task of the apostle, as we see, was to correct the situation in the Corinthian community, without destroying it in any way. And he is rejoices that he can have confidence in his Corinthian brothers particularly in sense of the oneness of spirit: because in such case he can be assured that he can solve his spiritual task. And the Church will finally lose nothing and nobody.