Orthodox readings for 18 November 2017

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

2 Corinthians, Chapter 11, verses 1-6

¹ Out of his jealousy over the Corinthians, who seemed to make more account of the false apostles than of him, he entereth into a forced commendation of himself, ⁵ of his equality with the chief apostles

¹Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.

²For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

³But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

⁴For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

⁵For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.

⁶But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.

Read more:2 Corinthians, Chapter 11

Comments:

Comments on the current fragment

Comments on the book

Comments on the part

11

11:1 I wish ye would bear - So does he pave the way for what might otherwise have given offence. With my folly - Of commending myself; which to many may appear folly; and really would be so, were it not on this occasion absolutely necessary.

11:2 For - The cause of his seeming folly is expressed in this and the following verse; the cause why they should bear with him, Co2 11:4.

11:3 But I fear - Love is full of these fears. Lest as the serpent - A most apposite comparison. Deceived Eve - Simple, ignorant of evil. By his subtilty - Which is in the highest degree dangerous to such a disposition. So your minds - We might therefore be tempted, even if there were no sin in us. Might be corrupted - Losing their virginal purity. From the simplicity that is in Christ - That simplicity which is lovingly intent on him alone, seeking no other person or thing.

11:4 If indeed - Any could show you another Saviour, a more powerful Spirit, a better gospel. Ye might well bear with him - But this is impossible.

11:6 If I am unskilful in speech - If I speak in a plain, unadorned way, like an unlearned person. So the Greek word properly signifies.

Luke, Chapter 9, verses 1-6

¹ Christ sendeth his apostles to work miracles and to preach

¹Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.

²And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

³And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.

⁴And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart.

⁵And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

⁶And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 9

Comments:

Comments on the current fragment

Comments on the book

Comments on the part

9

9:1 Mat 10:1; Mar 6:7.

9:4 There abide and thence depart - That is, stay in that house till ye leave the city.

NOTES

Luke briefly touches on a whole series of events about which the other evangelists, especially Matthew, speak in greater detail. He gives the central place to Peter's confession and to Jesus' account of His approaching death and resurrection. There is a logic to this presentation. First of all...

Luke briefly touches on a whole series of events about which the other evangelists, especially Matthew, speak in greater detail. He gives the central place to Peter's confession and to Jesus' account of His approaching death and resurrection. There is a logic to this presentation. First of all, the Savior lets His disciples feel the power of the Kingdom and learn from their own experience how this power acts in the world. And not only them: the miraculous feeding of thousands of people with five loaves and two fish is also possible only in the Kingdom. This is not surprising: when it comes to the Kingdom, it is easier to show than to tell. Meanwhile, even those who had previously taken no interest in Christ's testimony begin to notice it—for example, Herod, who was generally wary of every kind of messianic movement that threatened his power.

This is precisely why, immediately after Peter's confession, Jesus explains to the disciples just how different the messiahship He has brought into the world is. Of course, the apostles fully understood everything Jesus told them only on the day of Pentecost. But it was immediately after Peter's confession that He began speaking to them about His messiahship and His path. It is as though He is trying to make everything clear from the outset, so that His messianic ministry will not become associated in His disciples' minds with traditional popular messianic expectations.

From the very beginning, the Savior does everything possible to help His disciples understand as much as they can of what they will have to understand fully in due time. This is natural: Golgotha lay ahead. The disciples had to be prepared, as far as possible, for what awaited them—and what awaited them was the shock of the complete collapse of their entire worldview and sense of the world. Only the experience of the Kingdom could help them endure it—not the earthly kingdom of popular expectations, but the true Kingdom, the one the Savior brought into the world.

The apostles gained as much experience of the Kingdom as was then possible after they went out to preach on their own, without their Teacher. The new ideas about the Kingdom proved more difficult: they would not fit into the disciples' minds or find room in their consciousness. All that remained was to rely on their intuition and, above all, on the personal relationship that bound them to Jesus. Nevertheless, He tells the apostles everything that can be said in human words about His earthly path and earthly ministry. And then each one takes in as much of His words as he is able to take in.

Today's reading offers us several events that Luke links together, making them links in one chain. The passage begins with a description of how Jesus...

Today's reading offers us several events that Luke links together, making them links in one chain. The passage begins with a description of how Jesus sends the twelve apostles out to preach (vv. 1-10), continues with the story of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves (vv. 11-17), and ends with the account of Peter's confession, including Jesus' conversation (vv. 18-27). And this connection is, of course, not accidental. Jesus sends His disciples to witness to the Kingdom, and to witness not only by word but also by deed, so that the witness would be supported by such a visible manifestation of the Kingdom as healings (vv. 1-2). And the apostles' preaching, as we see, had success, attracting the attention not only of the people but also of the authorities (vv. 7-9).

Then something happened that perhaps even the apostles did not expect. The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves was, as we see, a surprise even for them. In order to feed the gathered people, they were ready to act by the most ordinary methods (vv. 12-13), but Jesus expected something different from them: He told them to behave as if they were in the Kingdom (vv. 14-16). And then something really happened that could not happen according to the laws of our world, not yet transformed, but that is possible in the Kingdom: a small amount of food was enough for everyone, and more than enough, so that if even more people had gathered, there would have been enough for each one (v. 17).

This was a very important experience of the Kingdom for everyone, and above all, of course, for the apostles themselves. Until now they had been witnesses of how the power of the Kingdom acts in a world not yet transformed, a world where its action manifests itself, in one way or another, in opposition to the evil in which this world remains. Now the apostles saw the Kingdom from within, as it will be when the world is completely transformed and renewed. Such an experience of abiding in the triumphant Kingdom could not pass without a trace, and Peter's confession may have become its result (vv. 18-20).

Then Jesus warns His disciples that before the victory of the Kingdom, which they had already partly had occasion to see, becomes complete, He Himself will have to pass through the cross, and those who follow Him will have to share that cross with Him (vv. 21-27). Thus, by giving His disciples a share in the Kingdom, Jesus at the same time tells them about the price of the Kingdom. About the price of the world's transformation and its deliverance from the evil into which the fall plunged it.

For Paul, Christianity is first of all witness, if we are speaking about words; and when words are used just like that, in argument for argument's sake or in argument for self-assertion, then...

For Paul, Christianity is first of all witness, if we are speaking about words; and when words are used just like that, in argument for argument's sake or in argument for self-assertion, then for the apostle such disputes are equivalent to false witness.

Apparently, the recipients of his letter in Corinth did not perceive the situation so unequivocally. It seemed to them that Christianity was not only Christ and the Kingdom, but also something else, whether some new theology, or new morality, or some other new thing that could be argued and debated. And the discussions were conducted with complete seriousness and at times quite heatedly, because it was assumed that fundamental questions of spiritual life were being settled there, questions without whose answer Christianity was unthinkable. In reality, however, they were arguing about secondary things, and during the argument they gradually forgot its subject, trying more and more to affirm themselves and their own point of view.

The apostle, however, tries to bring the disputants back to reality. Indeed, did any one of them, when accepting Christ and experiencing the presence of the breath of the Kingdom in his life, need anything else? Did they then need any further doctrines, any theology, anything at all besides Christ and the Kingdom? And if not, why has all this now become so "relevant" to them that, for the sake of arguments about things secondary in essence, they forget what is most important? Or did they hear some other, new gospel besides the one they heard from Paul and from the other apostles?

The point, Paul says, is not that he does not know how to argue, or that he could not take part in the arguments and debates that had become so popular in the Corinthian church. But to do so would mean acknowledging the importance and value of something that is not at all important and has little value. It would mean recognizing as apostles those who lay claim to apostleship while not being apostles in essence, but only trying to present themselves as God's servants while being merely lovers of argument about topics that have no direct relation to spiritual life. To begin arguing with such disputants on their own level would mean testifying to them and to everyone around that their disputes deserve attention and are important for spiritual life, and recognizing in them a ministry equal to the apostolic ministry - a ministry of which they have no understanding at all. Of course, Paul could not go along with this and had no intention of entering into arguments with people who simply liked to argue.

${currentDateString}