Main news for 31 July 2023

In our time Paul's words about marriage are no less relevant now than they were in the first century AD. In modern society, being a believer is more laughable and strange than normal. And this can coexist quite well with formal respect for the Bible. Yes, sometimes one can refer to it on occasion and this will even evoke respect, but a person who builds his life in accordance with Scripture sooner or later will feel the puzzled looks, and that at best, of acquaintances and colleagues. Our faith still remains a stumbling block and foolishness even for the closest people, the members of our family. Unfortunately, sometimes this lack of understanding begins to destroy the family from within, and the believer's own role in this is not so small. At first we rush to convert our husband or wife, pouring out arguments and quotations from the Bible with all the heat of our heart, forgetting that each person's path to God is individual; there are no laws and rules here. It is a personal conversation, and even a husband or wife is superfluous in it. And then, if our close person is not converted that very second, we become angry with him, and then we wall ourselves off and withdraw.

But in fact these words about marriage are only part of the apostle's main appeal: "Let each one remain before God in the calling in which he was called." It is hard for Christians to live in this world; there are too many temptations and distractions. One very much wants to shut oneself up in a narrow circle of friends who understand and are close in spirit, to pretend that the world does not exist. But Christ, through Paul's lips, calls us to go into the world, not away from the world. So that we, remaining there, in that very place in life where we met God, may carry the Good News into the world, the News of the Resurrection. So that by our life we may bear witness that one can live differently, not competing and defeating, but loving and forgiving. And this includes our family.