Catholic lectionary for 4 January 2020

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

1 John, Chapter 3, verses 7-10

³ who therefore ought obediently to keep his commandments

⁷Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

⁸He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

⁹Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

¹⁰In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Read more:1 John, Chapter 3

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3:7 Let no one deceive you - Let none persuade you that any man is righteous but he that uniformly practises righteousness; he alone is righteous, after the example of his Lord.

3:8 He that committeth sin is a child of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning - That is, was the first sinner in the universe, and has continued to sin ever since. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil - All sin.And will he not perform this in all that trust in him?

3:9 Whosoever is born of God - By living faith, whereby God is continually breathing spiritual life into his soul, and his soul is continually breathing out love and prayer to God, doth not commit sin. For the divine seed of loving faith abideth in him; and, so long as it doth, he cannot sin, because he is born of God - Is inwardly and universally changed.

3:10 Neither he that loveth not his brother - Here is the transition from the general proposition to one particular.

John, Chapter 1, verses 35-42

¹⁵ The testimony of John, ³⁹ The calling of Andrew, Peter, etc

³⁵Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;

³⁶And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

³⁷And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

³⁸Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

³⁹He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.

⁴⁰One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

⁴¹He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

⁴²And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

Read more:John, Chapter 1

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1:37 They followed Jesus - They walked after him, but had not the courage to speak to him.

1:41 He first findeth his own brother Simon - Probably both of them sought him: Which is, being interpreted, the Christ - This the evangelist adds, as likewise those words in Joh 1:38, that is, being interpreted, Master.

1:42 Jesus said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah - As none had told our Lord these names, this could not but strike Peter.Cephas, which is Peter - Moaning the same in Syriac which Peter does in Greek, namely, a rock.

NOTES

When reading today's passage, a question arises: why does John the Baptist still give no definite answer to the question asked him about his ministry? Indeed, he had every right to define his mission as...

When reading today's passage, a question arises: why does John the Baptist still give no definite answer to the question asked him about his ministry (vv. 19-23)? Indeed, he had every right to define his mission as prophetic, and such an answer would have fully satisfied the commission sent by the Synagogue to check him (vv. 24-25). But John refuses on principle to speak of his ministry as something having significance of its own. He sees his mission only as a preliminary stage necessary for preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah-Christ, and outside the context of this task John's ministry evidently loses all meaning, including for the prophet himself (vv. 25-27).

And it is precisely this view of his own mission that enables John to see and recognize the Messiah (vv. 29-34). For in order to recognize Christ, it is not enough simply to see Him physically. Outwardly Jesus differed little from an ordinary person. Of course, what He said was not something one could hear every day or from everyone, but the main thing was still not in the words. The main thing was in the Kingdom that He carried with Him wherever He went. Therefore, in order to recognize in Jesus the Messiah-Christ promised by God, one had to touch and share in the Kingdom.

But one can share in the Kingdom only on one very important condition: the one seeking it must forget his own importance, forget that he, as well as his deeds and ministries, can mean anything in themselves apart from the Kingdom into which he wants to enter. Perhaps this is why John does not want to testify about himself as a prophet: all the great prophets of Israel had their own mission, and each of these missions was, in a certain sense, self-sufficient. Each prophet was a figure in his own right, and those around him always noticed this, even when, as was most often the case, the prophets themselves wanted nothing of the kind. But in those times, the prominence of the prophet helped accomplish the main task entrusted by God to one or another of His servants. Now, however, the task evidently consisted precisely in pointing to the Messiah and remaining as unnoticed as possible oneself. John the Baptist succeeds in this: he disappears in the radiance of the coming Messiah, and in the radiance of the Kingdom that the Messiah carries with Him.

Perhaps the key words in the Gospel according to John are "encounter" and "disciples." Almost all the situations the evangelist describes are...

Beginning from the day of Pascha, with rare exceptions, we read the Gospel of John almost straight through, and one after another come astonishing and deep passages, each of which...

FAQ

I would like to ask a question that has interested me for a long time. It concerns the tradition of Satan's rebellion against God. Where is this spoken of in the Bible?

In the Bible, several places can be found that speak quite directly about Satan's rebellion against God or his opposition to God. Here are a few quotations (this selection does not claim to be exhaustive)...

In the Bible, several places can be found that speak quite directly about Satan's rebellion against God or his opposition to God. Here are a few quotations (this selection does not claim to be exhaustive):

Wisdom of Solomon, 2:24 "God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own eternity; but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it."

Isaiah, 14:12-15 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit."

Gospel of John, 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

1 John, 3:8 "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."

At the same time, Holy Scripture does not give us "picturesque" descriptions of this event. There are a number of reasons for this, the main ones being the following: 1) The Bible is addressed to us, people, and we bear responsibility for ourselves and our sin; 2) In Old Testament times, there was a serious danger of dualism, the worship of two opposing deities, one good and one evil. Many ancient pagan peoples (including Semitic ones) adhered to this point of view: the Babylonians and Persians, for example. Therefore, everything concerning Satan is reported in passing in the Old Testament, so as not to draw the reader's attention to this topic.

Did Jesus Christ have a home while He was on earth or not? In the Gospel of Matthew 8:20, Jesus says that He has no home, but in the Gospel of John 1:38-39, Jesus invites them to see His home.

The point is that John 1:38-39 and Matthew 8:20 refer to different moments in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly, He had a home on earth (although in His infancy He was a refugee when His family hid in Egypt from the persecution of Herod the Great)...

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