NOTES for Mat 5:20-26
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. |
21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: |
22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. |
23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; |
24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. |
25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. |
26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. |
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Why, if I do not live at peace with my neighbors, am I unworthy to stand before the Lord? Is peace of soul attainable in this vain and passionate world? Are there not prayers for enemies - and therefore enemies themselves? Is not the entire Psalter full of curses against the wicked ('let death come upon them,' 'But You, O God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction,' 'blessed is he who takes and dashes your little ones' and others)? And the Savior Himself says: 'Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword' (Matt 10:34). How are all these to be held together - peace and sword?
In our modern Orthodox usage, which in many ways did not escape and could not have escaped the influence of the Soviet worldview, which urgently needed the image of an enemy and simply collapsed without it, very many people seize on this dualism from the end convenient to them. But every true dualism is unconfused and undivided. And what does the Soviet period have to do with it? This is as old as the world. It is enough to remember witch hunts and the Inquisition as a whole, or persecutions of Jews in every age. Sergei Averintsev wrote about this as follows:
With all my mortal heart
consenting to decay I forgive those who offended me
Only who offended me
This woman who imagined that it seemed to her
That she trembled at the sound of my voice
…………
This man who imagined that it seemed to him
that he was trampling my face
…………
God, console with tenderness those who offended me
I do not know You know who they are
('Spiritual Verses / Bewilderment')
Only in this way is it possible to understand, only in this way is it possible to avoid the most terrible thing that opposes God - hatred, even when it hides behind righteous anger. 'You know,' and 'I do not know.'
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Readings for 3 June 2026
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