Orthodox readings for 1 December 2025

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

1 Timothy, Chapter 1, verses 1-7

¹ Timothy is put in mind of the charge which was given unto him by Paul at his going to Macedonia, ⁵ Of the right use and end of the law

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

²Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

³As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

⁴Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

⁵Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

⁶From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;

⁷Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Read more:1 Timothy, Chapter 1

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1:1 Paul an apostle - Familiarity is to be set aside where the things of God are concerned. According to the commandment of God - The authoritative appointment of God the Father. Our Saviour - So styled in many other places likewise, as being the grand orderer of the whole scheme of our salvation. And Christ our hope - That is, the author, object, and ground, of all our hope.

1:2 Grace, mercy, peace - St. Paul wishes grace and peace in his epistles to the churches. To Timotheus he adds mercy, the most tender grace towards those who stand in need of it.The experience of this prepares a man to be a minister of the gospel.

1:3 Charge some to teach no other doctrine - Than I have taught. Let them put nothing in the place of it, add nothing to it.

1:4 Neither give heed - So as either to teach or regard them.To fables - Fabulous Jewish traditions. And endless genealogies - Nor those delivered in scripture, but the long intricate pedigrees whereby they strove to prove their descent from such or such a person. Which afford questions - Which lead only to useless and endless controversies.

1:5 Whereas the end of the commandment - of the whole Christian institution. Is love - And this was particularly the end of the commandment which Timotheus was to enforce at Ephesus, Ti1 1:3, Ti1 1:18. The foundation is faith; the end, love. But this can only subsist in an heart purified by faith, and is always attended with a good conscience.

1:6 From which - Love and a good conscience. Some are turned aside - An affectation of high and extensive knowledge sets a man at the greatest distance from faith, and all sense of divine things. To vain jangling - And of all vanities, none are more vain than dry, empty disputes on the things of God.

1:7 Understanding neither the very things they speak, nor the subject they speak of.

Luke, Chapter 17, verses 20-25

¹¹ He healeth ten lepers, ²² Of the kingdom of God, and the coming of the Son of man

²⁰And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

²¹Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

²²And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.

²³And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.

²⁴For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.

²⁵But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 17

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17:20 The kingdom of God cometh not with observation - With such outward pomp as draws the observation of every one.

17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there - This shall not be the language of those who are, or shall be sent by me, to declare the coming of my kingdom. For behold the kingdom of God is within or among you - Look not for it in distant times or remote places: it is now in the midst of you: it is come: it is present in the soul of every true believer: it is a spiritual kingdom, an internal principle. Wherever it exists, it exists in the heart.

17:22 Ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man - One day of mercy. or one day wherein you might converse with me, as you do now.

17:23 They shall say, See, Christ is here, or there - Limiting his presence to this or that place. Mat 24:23.

17:24 So shall also the Son of man be - So swift, so wide, shall his appearing be: In his day - The last day.

Topics:

End of the World

NOTES

The Kingdom of God is said to be within us, or, in another translation, among us. In any case, we must acknowledge that it begins close to us, in our hearts, and is reflected in...

When asked when the Kingdom He preaches will finally come, Christ answers in a very strange way. On the one hand, it...

In his letter to Timothy, Paul reminds him of the situation that had developed in the Ephesian church. There, as is clear, a tendency toward turning...

In his letter to Timothy, Paul reminds him of the situation that had developed in the Ephesian church. There, as is clear, a tendency toward turning Christianity into a kind of new religion, based on the Torah understood externally and therefore clearly inclined toward legalism, was plainly visible and even growing.

Everything listed by the apostle that interested the newly appeared Ephesian "teachers" and their students at that time quite obviously concerned either the finer points of the text of the sacred books or the details of religious legislation, matters that in the Synagogue were handled only by zealots of the most refined casuistry. It is possible that in this way the freedom received in the Ephesian church was expressed in the lives of those who previously had been forced to be content with secondary and tertiary roles. Indeed, the church community of Ephesus, like that of many other cities, consisted mainly either of Jews or of those Gentiles who already had experience of synagogue life because they had earlier been interested in Judaism (in the Synagogue such Gentiles who believed in the God of Israel were called "God-fearers"). Some of these people may have known Jewish tradition quite well and even explained the Torah themselves to their fellow Gentiles, but in the Synagogue they were not considered rabbis or teachers, since for the Jews they still remained "Gentiles." And now, in the new church community, where Jews no longer had the former exclusive right to teach, these people found themselves precisely as teachers.

The problem, however, was that they were now continuing to teach newly converted Christians the same thing they had previously taught their fellow Gentiles in the Synagogue: the Jewish religion as they themselves understood it. The Church, strictly speaking, did not need this: Christianity is not a religion, and there is no special need to train Christians in any religious tradition whatever. Meanwhile, the Ephesian "teachers" were not only engaged in such teaching but, apparently, considered it fundamentally important and absolutely necessary for every Christian. It is this misunderstanding that Paul asks his disciple to notice.

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