As we can see, for Paul the goal of Christian life is "the knowledge of the truth." Such is also God's will for every person: God does not want anyone's destruction; He is not trying to assign...
As we can see, for Paul the goal of Christian life is "the knowledge of the truth." Such is also God's will for every person: God does not want anyone's destruction; He is not trying to assign people to some circles of hell or heavenly dwellings. He only wants each one to know the truth, and therefore to become living truth himself. In Paul's time the expression "to know the truth" had a quite specific meaning: it referred to the knowledge of God, and therefore to the way of the Torah, outside of which no knowledge of God is possible. The fullness of truth is possible for a person only when he himself becomes its embodiment, a living Torah.
This is the Christian's chief task, and it is not worth trading it away for anything else. That is why the apostle advises prayer that the outward life of Christians be, as far as possible, peaceful and calm: after all, the person carried away by outward events, especially war or politics, usually has little time left for spiritual work. Yet the mentioned goal of Christian life would remain unattainable if the Savior Himself had not "bought back" everyone who is ready to trust Him, as Paul usually puts it figuratively.
Speaking of "ransom" or "redemption," the apostle has in mind the fact that the Messiah not only brought the Kingdom into the world, but also made it possible for every seeker to enter it, regardless of what a person may have done in his former life. Indeed, a consciously committed sin, or more precisely its consequences, takes a person captive, and a sinful person cannot free himself from that captivity. The point here is not that someone is deliberately holding him, but that human nature itself, corrupted by the fall, weakens him and prevents him from living a full spiritual life.
In particular, this is also manifested in a person's becoming, as people usually say in such cases, a "slave of circumstances." More precisely, one should speak of those chains of cause and effect that a person generates by his own sinful actions and that then completely determine his further existence. In Hindu and Buddhist tradition such dependence was usually called karmic, and the corresponding patterns were called the law of karma, but people knew about them always and everywhere, even if they called them something else.
It is from this dependence that Jesus frees a person, taking his place in the chain of causes and effects created by his sins and, accordingly, taking upon Himself the consequences of the sins the person has committed. There is, however, one obligatory condition: the person himself repents of the sin committed and completely renounces it. Then it is no longer he who will have to deal with the consequences of what has been done, but his Savior, who in a sense buys him out of the slavery to sin in which the person found himself. And then the possibility opens to a person to become a living Torah and enter the Kingdom: for now the power of sin and of the evil in which the world lies ceases to be absolute over him. This means that the possibility appears of liberation from the bonds of the world's evil. And of salvation as well.
2
2:1 I exhort therefore - Seeing God is so gracious.In this chapter he gives directions,
- With regard to public prayers
- With regard to doctrine.
Supplication is here the imploring help in time of need: prayer is any kind of offering up our desires to God. But true prayer is the vehemency of holy zeal, the ardour of divine love, arising from a calm, undisturbed soul, moved upon by the Spirit of God. Intercession is prayer for others.We may likewise give thanks for all men, in the full sense of the word, for that God "willeth all men to be saved," and Christ is the Mediator of all.2:2 For all that are in authority - Seeing even the lowest country magistrates frequently do much good or much harm. God supports the power of magistracy for the sake of his own people, when, in the present state of men, it could not otherwise be kept up in any nation whatever. Godliness - Inward religion; the true worship of God. Honesty - A comprehensive word taking in the whole duty we owe to our neighbour.