NOTES for 2 Кор 4:1-6
In the Gospel the Lord says: “as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt 24:27). The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, says: “God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). The New Testament is not a secret teaching accessible only to the chosen. Nor is it a closed clan that rejects outsiders. The New Covenant is not a list of requirements that establishes a scale of good and evil according to the depth of humanity’s fall. The New Testament is not an ideology that molds the soul and mind of its adherents. It is not even a way of life that offers some fruits in exchange for renouncing others. It is light that has flashed like lightning from one end of heaven to the other. Light in which everything is visible: truth and falsehood, good and evil, life and death. Light that has shone in the face of Jesus Christ. It is not merely that life in the darkness is worse — dark, frightening, and cold. Experience shows that outside this light life is simply impossible.