Orthodox readings for 17 October 2025

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Philippians, Chapter 1, verses 27-30

²⁷ exhorting them to unity, ²⁸ and to fortitude in persecution

²⁷Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

²⁸And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.

²⁹For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

³⁰Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

Philippians, Chapter 2, verses 1-4

¹ He exhorteth them to unity, and to all humbleness of mind, by the example of Christ's humility and exaltation

¹If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

²Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

³Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

⁴Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Read more:Philippians, Chapter 2

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1

1:27 Only - Be careful for this, and nothing else. Stand fast in one spirit - With the most perfect unanimity. Striving together - With united strength and endeavours. For the faith of the gospel - For all the blessings revealed and promised therein.

1:28 Which - Namely, their being adversaries to the word of God, and to you the messengers of God. Is an evident token - That they are in the high road to perdition; and you, in theway of salvation.

1:29 For to you it is given - As a special token of God's love, and of your being in the way of salvation.

1:30 Having the same kind of conflict with your adversaries, which ye saw in me - When I was with you, Act 16:12, Act 16:19, etc

2

2:1 If there be therefore any consolation - In the grace of Christ. If any comfort - In the love of God. If any fellowship of the Holy Ghost; if any bowels of mercies - Resulting therefrom; any tender affection towards each other.

2:2 Think the same thing - Seeing Christ is your common Head. Having the same love - To God, your common Father.Being of one soul - Animated with the same affections and tempers, as ye have all drank ill to one spirit. Of one mind - Tenderly rejoicing and grieving together.

2:3 Do nothing through contention - Which is inconsistent with your thinking the same thing. Or vainglory - Desire of praise, which is directly opposite to the love of God. But esteem each the others better than themselves - (For every one knows more evil of himself than he can of another:) Which is a glorious fruit of the Spirit, and an admirable help to your continuing "of one soul."

2:4 Aim not every one at his own things - Only. If so, ye have not bowels of mercies.

Luke, Chapter 7, verses 31-35

³⁰ inveigheth against the Jews, who with neither the manners of John nor of Jesus could be won

³¹And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?

³²They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.

³³For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.

³⁴The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

³⁵But wisdom is justified of all her children.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 7

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7:32 They are like children sitting in the market place - So froward and perverse, that no contrivance can be found to please them.It is plain our Lord means, that they were like the children complained of, not like those that made the complaint.

7:34 But wisdom is justified by all her children - The children of wisdom are those who are truly wise unto salvation. The wisdom of God in all these dispensations, these various methods of calling sinners to repentance, is owned and heartily approved by all these.

NOTES

It is worth paying attention to three different translations of the words the Lord says to us today. “And Wisdom is justified by all her children” (Synodal). “And all her children were the justification of wisdom” (Bishop Cassian's translation). “But all her children acknowledged that God's Wisdom is right” (Good News). In fact, they all convey different meanings, something easily grasped in...

It is worth paying attention to three different translations of the words the Lord says to us today. “And Wisdom is justified by all her children” (Synodal). “And all her children were the justification of wisdom” (Bishop Cassian's translation). “But all her children acknowledged that God's Wisdom is right” (Good News). In fact, they all convey different meanings, something easily grasped in the third version and with considerable difficulty in the first two, which seem very close. Since not all of us are philologists and not all of us know Greek, if we want to penetrate the essence of what is being said, we have no choice but to reflect on all three—though perhaps someone knows other translations that differ substantially.

The first translation, very close in meaning to all the English versions known to us, points to something important. We, the children of Wisdom, come into this world to prove by our deeds that God's Wisdom is a true reality, not a myth we have created, but something Living that participates in our labor. Yet before whom must she be justified? Certainly not before God, and therefore before the world. But why? The Lord does not need to be justified before the world. Why, then, does Wisdom need it? Perhaps an answer can be found to some extent in the eighth chapter of Proverbs. Recalling the creation of the world, Wisdom says of herself: “then I was beside Him as a master craftsman” (Prov. 8:30). She is the “agent,” if one may put it that way—from the Latin agentis, “acting”—who is in some sense responsible for the world. Here is the answer to why she appears before the world's judgment.

Bishop Cassian's translation somewhat removes the active role from the children and transfers it to Wisdom. These are the children she has brought forth, and in themselves they already constitute her justification. Finally, the quite different Good News translation undoubtedly has a truth of its own. Why are we children of Wisdom? Simply because we acknowledge that she is right without any justifications or proofs. This is precisely the nuance carried by the word “vindicate” in one English translation, where the Russian has “justification.” We simply accept that Wisdom is right, and we need nothing else.

These very words, with which the apostle Paul begins to speak of the self-emptying of the Son of God, express the essence of what “life according to the Gospel” means. At first sight, this may seem very simple and, so to speak, down-to-earth. But the apostle says that this is the path by which...

Why does John, who himself bore witness to Jesus and saw the Spirit descending upon Him, suddenly send his disciples to Him with such a question? Perhaps he wants...

FAQ

How are we to understand the verses in Luke 7:30-32?

The Pharisees refused to acknowledge both John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Himself as messengers of God. Each of them, despite their differences, displeased them in some way...

The Pharisees refused to acknowledge both John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Himself as messengers of God. Each of them, despite their differences, displeased them in some way. They disliked John the Baptist because of his asceticism and his call to a renewal of faith. The Lord... the Lord displeased them entirely, in particular because He did not reject the repentance of sinful people, whom the Pharisees considered doomed to perdition. In reality, of course, behind this lay an unwillingness to accept the Good News, primarily because the Pharisees most of all wanted to appear in their own eyes as better than everyone else. The Gospel provides no such opportunity to them, nor to anyone else. It is significant that the Pharisees, as far as can be judged from Gospel and historical accounts, circulated talk that John the Baptist was not what a prophet should be, and Jesus of Nazareth was not either...

The Lord applies to them the image of children who do not weep at sorrowful songs and do not rejoice at joyful ones. God, the Lord is thereby saying, attempts to convey His word, His will, the Good News to the Pharisees in this way and that, through various and disparate paths. But they react to nothing, and this reveals their sheer unwillingness to respond to the call of God. The issue is not what John the Baptist is like or what Jesus Himself is like.

Those who seek the Word of God, however, will one way or another be able to find and accept it, as the Lord concludes with the words, "wisdom is justified of all her children." Some came to Christ through the preaching of the Baptist, others recognized the Savior in Him themselves... He who has ears and desires to hear, will hear.

In our time, this passage of the Gospel remains exceptionally relevant. Often people say: I would believe, but... Something always displeases the one who does not wish to believe. Either there is much that is bad in the Bible (since the truth about history is written there), or Christians are bad, or the commandments are strange... It is precisely to such a stance that the words of Christ apply.

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