The Jacobean Rule

The teaching of holy apostle James, the Lord's brother…

You will always have your trials but, when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege.

James 1:2

Your faith is put to the test to make you patient, but patience too is to have its practical results, so that you will become fully developed, complete, with nothing missing.

James 1:3-4

If there is anyone of you who needs wisdom, he must ask God, who gives to all freely and ungrudgingly; it will be given him. But he must ask with faith, with no trace of doubt.

James 1:5-6a

Never, when you have been tempted, say, ‘God sent the temptation.’ God cannot be tempted to do anything wrong, and He does not tempt anybody. Everyone who is tempted is attracted and seduced by his own wrong desire.

James 1:13-14

Be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to rouse your temper. God’s righteousness is never served by man’s anger.

James 1:19-20

Do away with all the impurities and bad habits that are still left in you. Accept and submit to the Word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. You must do what the Word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves.

James 1:21-22

The man who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and makes that his habit, not listening and then forgetting, but actively putting it into practice, will be happy in all that he does.

James 1:25

Nobody must imagine that he is religious while he still goes on deceiving himself and not keeping control over his tongue.

James 1:26a

Pure, unspoiled religion in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.

James 1:27

Do not try to combine faith in Jesus Christ with the making of distinctions between classes of people.

James 2:1

Keep the supreme law of scripture: you must love your neighbor as yourself. But as soon as you make distinctions between classes of people you are committing sin and under condemnation.

James 2:8b-9a

Talk and behave like people who are going to be judged by the law of freedom, because there will be a judgment without mercy for those who have not been merciful themselves; but the merciful need have no fear of judgment.

James 2:12-13

If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well! Keep yourself warm, and eat plenty!’ without giving them these bare necessities of life, what good is that? Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead.

James 2:15-17

Faith without good deeds is useless.

James 2:20b

It is by doing something good, and not only by believing, that a man is justified.

James 2:24

If there are any wise or learned among you, let them show it by their good lives, with humility and wisdom in their actions.

James 3:13

The wisdom that comes down from above is essentially something pure. It makes for peace and is kindly and considerate. It is full of compassion and shows itself by doing good, nor is there any trace of partiality or hypocrisy in it. Peacemakers, when they work for peace, sow the seeds which will bear fruit in holiness.

James 3:17-18

Anyone who chooses the world for his friend turns himself into God’s enemy.

James 4:4b

Give in to God, then; resist the devil, and he will run away from you. The nearer you go to God, the nearer He will come to you. Clean your hands, you sinners, and clear your minds, you waverers. Look at your wretched condition and weep for it in misery. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

James 4:7-9a, 10

Do not slander one another.

James 4:11a

Everyone who knows what is the right thing to do and doesn’t do it commits a sin.

James 4:17

Do not make complaints against one another, so as not to be brought to judgment yourselves.

James 5:9

For your example in submitting with patience, take the prophets who spoke in the Name of the Lord; remember, it is those who had endurance that we say are the blessed ones.

James 5:10-11

Do not swear by heaven or by earth or use any oaths at all. If you mean ‘yes,’ you must say ‘yes;’ if you mean ‘no,’ say ‘no.’ Otherwise you make yourselves liable to judgment.

James 5:12

If anyone of you is in trouble, he should pray. If anyone is feeling happy, he should sing a psalm.

James 5:13

Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, and this will cure you.

James 5:16

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

He has paid the price

Back in the mid-1960's when I was in grade 8, going to school in middle class southwest Chicago, I was part of a very elite group. Even back then they had a 'talented and gifted' cohort of students that were treated with kid gloves and given many more advantages than the average students. I was in this group from grade 4 to 8, and then continued being in this preferred group right through graduation from high school.

Almost all of us, as I remember, were second generation Americans born into mostly Eastern and Southern European immigrant families: Polish, Ukrainian, Slovak, Czech, Jewish, Italian, Greek, and even a few Germans. Very few of us were from Anglo-Saxon or longtime American families. Our parents pushed us to the limits to excel, and many of us did. When we graduated from primary school at grade 8, I was salutatorian and a Czech girl (whom I had a crush on) was valedictorian. We both had straight A's for our career, but she beat me for the top spot because she had perfect attendance. As for me, I skipped school as often as possible.

I have this vivid memory that often comes before me: There we were, seated at our desks arranged theatre-like in shallow curves across the room facing the teacher's desk in four long, uninterrupted rows. I was in row three, second from the left end. Beverly, my youthful crush, radiant and tall, sat at a desk almost center in the fourth row. It was a sunny autumn day, and the room was very quiet. A test was in progress. The teacher, a bookish, virginal woman approaching middle age with immaculately tidy hair, was seated at her desk engrossed in a book she was devouring, unmindful of us, looking up only occasionally when someone dropped a pencil, or coughed.

She didn't hear the little taps, or see us holding up fingers, as we shared the correct answers in this multiple choice exam with the less gifted and talented among us, relaying them quickly and effortlessly, suppressing giggles with almost total success. Everyone did very well on that test, and I am sure, on every other test we took as a group, because over the years we had all helped each other, both legally and illegally, like cheating in this exam, so that the whole lot of us shone 'like the stars of heaven.' All of us were either Catholic or Orthodox kids, except for Dennis, the Jew. We all had been communed and confirmed, and should've known better, but we cheated on exams (not always, but often), and we never felt guilty. It was a sort of game.

I attended a different high school than these friends, in a small town downstate, but was still in the 'talented and gifted' category. There were no long-standing relationships with my fellow students. In fact, I became an outcaste because this was an 'all-American' school. Yet I did well, very well in fact, even while skipping school more than ever. I barely studied, yet maintained that four point average.

What happened to me in college was the most humiliating thing that had happened to me up till then: I nearly flunked out in the first year, barely making a C average. Why? Not because there was no cheating apparatus, but because I never developed good study habits and college was really difficult. As in high school I took the most challenging and demanding courses, but at college, these were for real, not just for window dressing.

What I want to witness to, is that cheating, like every other kind of sin, has no limitation to time, place, ethnicity, age group, culture, or class. We all cheat. It's just another side of our 'built-in law of failure,' all the more tragic because we use it to hide this built-in combustible from ourselves. We want to appear other than what we are, to others, to ourselves, and even in our dullest moments, to God.

Yes, as scripture says, we are ‘pierced by many pains,’ but thanks be to God in Christ who, pierced for our sins and by our sorrows, He has also pierced through our defenses, to rescue us from our self-imposed prisons, and take us up with Him, on high. It is all His work, not ours, and whether we like it or not, He has paid the price.

The Hebrew Rule

The teaching of the holy apostles…

Take care, brothers, that there is not in anyone of your community a wicked mind, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God.

Hebrews 3:12

Every day keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin.

Hebrews 3:13

We shall remain coheirs with Christ only if we keep a grasp on our first confidence right to the end.

Hebrews 3:14

The Word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely; it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts. No created thing can hide from Him; everything is uncovered and open to the eyes of the One to whom we must give an account of ourselves.

Hebrews 4:12-13

We must never let go of the faith that we have professed.

Hebrews 4:14b

Be confident in approaching the throne of grace. We shall have mercy from Him and find grace when we are in need of help.

Hebrews 4:16

Through the blood of Jesus we have the right to enter the sanctuary by a new way which He has opened for us, a living opening through the curtain, His body.

Hebrews 10:19b-20

Let us be sincere in heart and filled with faith, our minds sprinkled and free from any trace of bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us keep firm in the faith we profess, because the One who made the promise is faithful.

Hebrews 10:22-23

Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.

Hebrews 10:24

Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage each other to go; the more so as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:25

Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen. It was for faith that our ancestors were commended.

Hebrews 11:1-2

With so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily the race we have started.

Hebrews 12:1

Let us not lose sight of Jesus who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection.

Hebrews 12:2

Think of the way He stood such opposition from sinners and then you will not give up for want of courage. In the fight against sin you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.

Hebrews 12:3-4

When the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when He reprimands you. The Lord trains the ones that He loves and He punishes all those that He acknowledges as his sons. Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as His sons.

Hebrews 12:5b-7a

Always be wanting peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14

Be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a whole community.

Hebrews 12:15

Be careful that there is no immorality, or that anyone of you does not degrade religion like Esau, who sold his birthright for one single meal.

Hebrews 12:16

What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm, or trumpeting thunder, or the great voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them.

Hebrews 12:18-19

What you have come to is Mount Zion and the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a first-born son and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God Himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with the spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus the Mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s. Make sure that you never refuse to listen when He speaks.

Hebrews 12:22-25a

We have been given possession of an unshakable Kingdom. Let us therefore hold on to the grace that we have been given and use it to worship God in the way that he finds acceptable, in reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:28-29

Continue to love each other like brothers and remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

Hebrews 13:1-2

Keep in mind those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them; and those who are being badly treated, since you too are in one body.

Hebrews 13:3

Marriage is to be honored by all, and marriages are to be kept undefiled, because fornicators and adulterers will come under God’s judgment.

Hebrews 13:4

Put greed out of your lives and be content with whatever you have.

Hebrews 13:5a

Remember your leaders who preach the Word of God to you and, as you reflect on the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.

Hebrews 13:7

Jesus Christ is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be forever. Do not let yourselves be led astray by all sorts of strange doctrines.

Hebrews 13:8-9a

Jesus suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people with His own blood. Let us go to Him outside the camp and share His degradation. For there is no eternal city for us in this life, but we look for one in the life to come. Through Him let us offer God an unending sacrifice of praise, a verbal sacrifice every time we acknowledge His Name.

Hebrews 13:12-15

Keep doing good works and sharing your resources, for these are sacrifices that please God.

Hebrews 13:16

Obey your leaders and do as they tell you, because they must give an account of the way they look after your souls. Make this a joy for them to do and not a grief. You yourselves would be the losers.

Hebrews 13:17

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

Axios

Axios! Worthy! An acclamation we hear ringing in the Greek Church when someone is publicly honored. It may be a newly baptised and illuminated Christian, who hears these words after being anointed with holy chrism, been tonsured and the first offering of the hair of the head made, having the cross of Christ fastened around the neck. I cannot remember hearing this acclamation at the baptism of an infant, but of an adult, yes, we hear ‘Axios!’ or ‘Axia!’ depending on the gender of the newly illumined.

We hear it again, ‘Axios!’ at the acceptance of the call of Christ, to whatever special service or ministry, from acolyte and reader, to sub-deacon, deacon, monastic, presbyter, and bishop. It is the people who always acclaim, expressing the approval of Christ Himself, who speaks His prophetic utterances among us and upon us through His people.

He is a strange God, this Christ, who calls a man ‘brother’ even before he has accepted His call; who acclaims a man ‘worthy’ even before he has proven himself in the arena.

As conquering heroes we are welcomed by this strange, man-loving God into the arena, where He has already defeated our every fear, every failure, even our very defeat. We enter the arena that He has prepared for us, if we have faith, confident that there no harm can come to us, no loss can afflict us, nor any shame swallow us up in its mockery.

This is no God who can be denied by even an atheist, if he is a thinking man, because He has not contented Himself to remain invisible and high in the remote or mythical heavens. This God has Himself come down into even the atheist's soul, granting life and reason, unasked and unthanked. He rewards even those who do not honor Him, if they obey His commands, which are written indelibly on the soul, making it human.

Axios! Worthy! The sheep following the path to His right without even knowing His name, because they treated His poverty with mercy.

Axios! Worthy! Those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, though they themselves were weak and lost their battle.

Axios! Worthy! The sons of God who worked for peace, whether or not they knew who is the Prince of Peace, who called them ‘brother’ without their knowledge.

Axios! Worthy! You are called, brother, to a life that you never knew existed, that you never heard tell of, except perhaps in shrouded half-truths passed from one pious mummer to another, stingily grasped and reluctantly bestowed, of whom Christ says, ‘Even what little he has shall be taken away.’ No, but He gives you yourself, worthily into your own hands, with His blessing, to spend in purchasing the field of hidden treasures.

You have only to receive it, to accept His call, to hear the acclamation ‘Axios!’ humbly but gladly, for He has captured your soul and taken you with Him on high, to present you as holy tribute to His Father, the Holy God. He has ransomed your soul from hell before you ever were born, and has restored to you what was lost without your knowing.

Axios! Worthy! The acclamation of the Lamb on His Throne, which He shares with us, seating us next to Himself. Do not refuse to follow, when He calls, for after darkness comes light, unending day after this brief night. He says to you, ‘Receive now the Kingdom that was prepared for you before the foundation of the world. Enter into the joy of your Lord.’

The Pauline Rule

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

Insist that people stop teaching strange doctrines and taking notice of myths and endless geneologies; these things are only likely to raise irrelevant doubts instead of furthering the designs of God which are revealed in faith.

1 Timothy 1:3b-4

The only purpose of this instruction is that there should be love, coming out of a pure heart, and clear conscience, and a sincere faith. There are some people who have gone off the straight course and taken a path that leads to empty speculation.

1 Timothy 1:5-6

Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

1 Timothy 1:15

Fight like a good soldier with faith and a good conscience for your weapons. Some people have put conscience aside and wrecked their faith in consequence.

1 Timothy 1:18b-19

There should be prayers offered for everyone—petitions, intercessions and thanksgiving—and especially for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live religious and reverent lives in peace and quiet. To do this is right and will please God our Savior: He wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:1-4

The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times there will be some who will desert the faith and choose to listen to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from devils; and the cause of this is the lies told by hypocrites whose consciences are branded as though with a red-hot iron.

1 Timothy 4:1-2

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales. Train yourself spiritually. Physical exercises are useful enough, but the usefulness of spirituality is unlimited, since it holds out the reward of life here and now, and of the future life as well.

1 Timothy 4:7-8

The point of all our toiling and battling is that we have put our trust in the living God, and He is the Savior of the whole human race, but particularly of all believers.

1 Timothy 4:10

Be an example to all the believers in the way you speak and behave, and in your love, your faith, and your purity. Make use of the time by reading to the people, preaching and teaching.

1 Timothy 4:12-13

Take great care about what you do and what you teach; always do this, and in this way you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.

1 Timothy 4:16

Anyone who does not look after his own relations, especially if they are living with him, has rejected the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

1 Timothy 5:8

Never make yourself an accomplice in anybody else’s sin. Keep yourself pure.

1 Timothy 5:22b

Anyone who teaches anything different and does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine which is in accordance with true religion, is simply ignorant and must be full of self-conceit, with a craze for questioning everything and arguing about words. All that can come of this is jealousy, contention, abuse and wicked mistrust of one another, and unending disputes by people who are neither rational nor informed and imagine that religion is a way of making money.

1 Timothy 6:3-5

We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. As long as we have food and clothing, let us be content with that. People who long to be rich are a prey to temptation. They get trapped into all sorts of foolish and dangerous ambitions which eventually plunge them into ruin and destruction. The love of money is the root of all evils, and there are some who pursuing it have wandered away from the faith.

1 Timothy 6:7-10a

Aim to be saintly and religious, filled with faith and love, patient and gentle.

1 Timothy 6:11

Warn those who are rich in this world’s goods that they are not to look down on other people and not to set their hopes on money which is untrustworthy, but on God who out of His riches gives us all we need for our happiness. Tell them that they are to do good and be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share.

1 Timothy 6:17-18

Have nothing to do with the pointless philosophical discussions and antagonistic beliefs of the “knowledge” which is no knowledge at all.

1 Timothy 6:20

God’s gift is not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:7

You are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord.

2 Timothy 1:8a

God has saved us and called us to be holy, not because of anything we ourselves have done, but for His own purpose and by His own grace.

2 Timothy 1:9

Keep as your pattern the sound teaching, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. You have been trusted to look after something precious. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

2 Timothy 1:13-14

Accept the strength that comes from the grace of Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:1

You have heard everything. Hand it on to reliable people so that they in turn will be able to teach others.

2 Timothy 2:2

Put up with your share of difficulties like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:3

Remember the Good News: Jesus Christ risen from the dead.

2 Timothy 2:8

If we have died with Him, then we shall live with Him.
If we hold firm, then we shall reign with Him.
If we disown Him, then He will disown us.
We may be unfaithful, but He is always Faithful, for He cannot disown
His own self.

2 Timothy 2:11b-13

There is to be no wrangling about words: all that this ever achieves is the destruction of those who are listening.

2 Timothy 2:14

Have nothing to do with pointless philosophical discussions. They only lead further and further away from the true religion. Talk of this kind corrodes like gangrene.

2 Timothy 2:16-17

God’s solid foundation stone is still in position, and this is the inscription on it: “The Lord knows those who are His own,” and “All who call on the Name of the Lord must avoid sin.”

2 Timothy 2:19

Instead of giving in to your impulses, fasten your attention on holiness, faith, love, and peace, in union with all those who call on the Lord with pure minds.

2 Timothy 2:22

Avoid futile and silly speculations, understanding that they only give rise to quarrels. A servant of the Lord is not to engage in quarrels but has to be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and patient. He has to be gentle when he corrects people who dispute what he says, never forgetting that God may give them a change of mind so that they recognise the truth and come to their senses, once out of the trap where the devil caught them and kept them enslaved.

2 Timothy 2:23-26

You may be quite sure that in the last days there are going to be some difficult times. People will be self-centred and grasping, boastful, arrogant, and rude, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, heartless and unappeasable. They will be slanderers, profligates, savages, and enemies of everything that is good. They will be treacherous and reckless and demented by pride, preferring their own pleasure to God. They will keep up the outward appearance of religion but will have rejected the inner power of it. Have nothing to do with people like that.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Anybody who tries to live in devotion to Christ is certain to be attacked.

2 Timothy 3:12

You must keep to what you have been taught and know to be true. Remember who your teachers were.

2 Timothy 3:14

All Scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy.

2 Timothy 3:16

Before God and before Christ Jesus who is to be Judge of the living and the dead, in the name of his Appearing and of his Kingdom: Proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, call to obedience. Do all with patience and the intention of teaching. Be careful always to choose the right course. Be brave under trials. Make the preaching of the Good News your life’s work in thoroughgoing service.

2 Timothy 4:1-2, 5

Bring those whom God has chosen to faith and to the knowledge of the truth that leads to true religion, and give them the hope of the eternal life that was promised long ago by God, who does not lie.

Titus 1:1b-2

Have a firm grasp of the unchanging message of the tradition.

Titus 1:9a

To all who are pure themselves, everything is pure; but to those who have been corrupted and lack faith, nothing can be pure.

Titus 1:15

Preach the behavior which goes with healthy doctrine.

Titus 2:1

In everything you do, make yourself an example of working for good.

Titus 2:7

When you are teaching be an example in your sincerity and earnestness, and in keeping all that you say so wholesome that nobody can make objections to it.

Titus 2:8

There must be no petty thieving. Show complete honesty at all times.

Titus 2:10a

God’s grace has been revealed, and it has made salvation possible for the whole human race, and taught us that what we have to do is to give up everthing that does not lead to God, and all our worldly ambitions. We must be self-restrained and live good and religious lives here in this present world while we are waiting for the blessing which will come with the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. He sacrificed himself for us in order to set us free from all wickedness and to purify a people so that it could be His very own and would have no ambition except to do good.

Titus 2:11-14

Be ready to do good at every opportunity.

Titus 3:1b

Be courteous and polite to all kinds of people. Remember, there was a time when we too were ignorant, disobedient, and misled and enslaved by different passions and luxuries.

Titus 3:2b-3a

If a man disputes what you teach, then after a first and a second warning, have no more to do with him.

Titus 3:10

Faith will give rise to a sense of fellowship that will show you all the good things that we are able to do for Christ.

Philemon 1:6

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

For forty days

In my earlier work, Theophilos, I dealt with everything that Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day He gave his instructions to the apostles He had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown Himself alive to them after His Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days He had continued to appear to them and tell them about the Kingdom of God.

Acts of the Apostles 1:1-3 Jerusalem Bible

Reading the book of Acts, and the epistles written by holy apostle Paul and the other apostles, it is easy to forget that Peter, James and John, Jude and possibly the unnamed writer of the letter to the Hebrews (if it was not Paul) were those to whom Jesus 'had shown Himself alive… for forty days.' It's also easy to forget that Paul did not have this experience of Jesus, and what this would mean in his relationship to the other apostles.

Imagine how you would think and feel, if you were part of that closely knit group of the Twelve, with the Equals-to-the-Apostles (female apostles such as Mary Magdalen and Photini the Samaritan) and the other unnamed disciples to whom Jesus had personally shown Himself after His death and resurrection, and you were witnessing and preaching to others. Suddenly, here comes a man who is your adamant persecutor, and now he is witnessing and preaching about the Jesus that appeared to you, and saying things that only you, who saw and heard Christ for forty days after his rising from the dead, should be able to tell others.

Where does he get the idea he can do this? He wasn't with you when Jesus taught you the mysteries of the Kingdom for forty days. He wasn't with you when, unexpectedly on the fortieth day, 'He was lifted up while [you] looked on, and a cloud took Him from [your] sight' (Acts 1:9). Some of you even remember that this man Saul (that's his real name) stood guard over the pile of clothing that the murderers of Stephanos took off so they could stone the first martyr with more strength, unhampered by their heavy wraps. Yes, Saul, just like the evil king who persecuted David, the ancestor of the Messiah Jesus.

It could only have been a miracle that changed the original apostles and disciples to enable them to accept Paul as one of them, perhaps an even greater miracle than his meeting with Christ on the Damascus road.

But the forty days, that precious time of fellowship with the risen Jesus, the time when His mother, His close disciples—now apostles—both male and female, heard His lips and saw His eyes 'tell them about the Kingdom of God,' what of those days?

None of the testimony had been put down in writing yet. The hearing of the Word of God from His own lips, handed over by the risen Christ to His holy apostles, had not yet ripened in their hearts and minds. It had to be lived first, at least a little, before it could be committed to writing. Even after two generations, the last of the holy apostles, John the beloved of the Lord, could still say, 'There are several things I have to tell you, but I have thought it best not to trust them to paper and ink' (2 John 1:12).

For forty days, the sacred number of days that Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain top, the One who was both Lawgiver and God in His own person imparted the saving knowledge, planted the seed of the apostolic witness in those whom He was about to send into the world. They were good soil indeed, the seed planted in them bearing not just thirty or sixty or even a hundredfold, but even more as the Lord Himself gave increase.

And so the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven; there at the right hand of God He took His place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word by the signs that accompanied it.

Mark 16:19-20

The Thessalonian Rule

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

We know that God loves you and that you have been chosen because when we brought the Good News to you, it came to you not only as words, but as power, and as the Holy Spirit, and as utter conviction.
You observed the sort of life we lived when we were with you, which was for your instruction, and you were led to become imitators of us and of the Lord, and it was with the joy of the Holy Spirit that you took to the Gospel.

1 Thessalonians 1:4-6

As soon as you heard the message we brought you as God’s message, you accepted it for what it really is, God’s message and not some human thinking, and it is still a living power among you who believe it.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

What God wants is for you all to be holy.
He wants you to keep away from fornication, and each one of you to know how to use the body that belongs to him in a way that is holy and honorable, not giving way to selfish lust like the pagans who do not know God.
He wants nobody at all ever to sin by taking advantage of a brother in these matters.
We have been called by God to be holy, not to be immoral.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-7

Give encouragement to each other and keep strengthening each other.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Be considerate to those who are working among you and are above you in the Lord as your teachers. Have the greatest respect and affection for them because of their work.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

Be at peace among yourselves.
Warn the idlers.
Give courage to those who are apprehensive.
Care for the weak and be patient with everyone.
Make sure that people do not try to take revenge.
You must all think of what is best for each other and for the community.
Be happy at all times.
Pray constantly, and for all things give thanks to God.
This is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus.
Never try to suppress the Spirit or treat the gift of prophecy with contempt.
Think before you do anything.
Hold on to what is good and avoid every form of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-22

God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctifying Spirit and by faith in the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:13b

Stand firm, and keep the traditions we taught you whether by word of mouth or by letter.

2 Thessalonians 2:15

Pray that the Lord’s message may spread quickly and be received with honor.

2 Thessalonians 3:1

Keep away from any of the brothers who refuses to work or to live according to the tradition.

2 Thessalonians 3:6

Never grow tired of doing what is right.
If anyone refuses to obey, have nothing to do with him, so that he will feel that he is in the wrong, though you are not to regard him as an enemy, but as a brother in need of correction.

2 Thessalonians 3:13-15

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

‘Clothes make the man…

…or the woman.’ This is an old proverb that I learned as a high school student in German language class as Kleider machen Leute, literally ‘Clothes make people.’ In our fashion-conscious and paradoxically laid back dress code culture, where we seem to reach for the extremes, no one wanting to just dress ‘normally’—because there is no such thing as ‘normal’—the topic of Aunt Melanie's new blog Church Dress Code, subtitled A Paper on Proper Clothing for the Christian Woman, will seem totally out of touch, if not out of line. But the author is no doctrinaire pundit, but a careful and balanced thinker, researcher and writer, who just happens to be a woman following Jesus. This is recommended reading, as something essential that has been neglected, and no matter what the current state of culture happens to be, here in America or anywhere in the ‘Christian’ world, we need to have these truths again brought to our attention. Not all revolutions are irreversible. Some may need to be reversed if a culture is to survive at all. In this blog Aunt Melanie has provided us with a well-grounded sketch of Christian womanhood written from within the species—not men telling women what they should do, as in some religious cultures, but as ‘woman to woman’—the other half of the Body of Christ. That is how it should, no, must be. Glory to God.

If you missed the link above, to read Church Dress Code, click HERE.

The Colossian Rule

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

You will be able to lead the kind of life which the Lord expects of you, a life acceptable to Him in all its aspects, showing the results in all the good actions you do and increasing your knowledge of God. You will have in you the strength never to give in, but to bear anything joyfully, thanking the Father who made it possible for you to join the saints and with them to inherit the light.

Colossians 1:10-12

He has taken us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the Kingdom of the Son that he loves, and in him we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.

Colossians 1:13-14

The mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory. This is the Christ we proclaim, this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone and instruct everyone, to make them all perfect in Christ.

Colossians 1:27-28

Make sure that no one deceives you with specious arguments.

Colossians 2:4

You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received, Jesus the Lord. You must be rooted in Him and built on Him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving.

Colossians 2:6-7

Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some secondhand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ.

Colossians 2:8

Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven where Christ is sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth.

Colossians 3:1-2

You must kill everything in you that belongs only to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires, and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god. All this is the sort of behavior that makes God angry.

Colossians 3:5-6

You must give all these things up: getting angry, being bad-tempered, spitefulness, abusive language and dirty talk, and never tell each other lies.

Colossians 3:8-9a

You have stripped off your old behavior with your old self, and you have put on a new self which will progress toward true knowledge the more it is renewed in the Image of its Creator. In that Image there is no room for distinction. There is only Christ. He is everything, and He is in everything.

Colossians 3:9b-11

You are God’s chosen race, His saints. He loves you. You should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another. Forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you. Now you must do the same. Over all these clothes to keep them together and complete them, put on love. And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together as parts of one body. Always be thankful.

Colossians 3:12-15

Let the message of Christ in all its richness find a home with you. Teach each other and advise each other in all wisdom. With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God. Never say or do anything except in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Colossians 3:16-17

Wives, give way to your husbands, as you should in the Lord.

Colossians 3:18

Husbands, love your wives and treat them with gentleness.

Colossians 3:19

Children, be obedient to your parents always, because that is what will please the Lord.

Colossians 3:20

Parents, never drive your children to resentment or you will make them feel frustrated.

Colossians 3:21

Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as if it were for the Lord and not for men, knowing that the Lord will repay you by making you His heirs. It is Christ the Lord that you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24

Be persevering in your prayers and be thankful as you stay awake to pray.

Colossians 4:2

Be tactful with those who are not Christians and be sure you make the best use of your time with them. Talk to them agreeably and with a flavor of wit, and try to fit your answers to the needs of each one.

Colossians 4:5-6

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

Jesus born within us

The child Jesus born within us advances by different ways in those who receive Him in wisdom, in age, and in grace.

He is not the same in every person, but is present according to the measure of the person receiving Him. He shows Himself according to each one's capacity.

He comes either as an infant, or a child advancing in age, or as one fully grown after the example of the cluster. Christ is never seen with the same form upon the vine, but He changes His form with time—now budding, now blossoming, now mature, now ripe and finally as wine.

Thus the vine holds out a promise with its fruit. It is not yet ripe for wine, but it awaits maturity. Meanwhile it does not lack in any delight, for it gladdens our sense of smell instead of our taste with its expectation of the future; by its fragrance of hope it sweetens the soul's senses.

A faith firm in a grace we hope for becomes a delight for us who wait in patience.

— Gregory of Nyssa, commentary on The Song of Songs

The Philippian Rule

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

The One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished when the Day of Christ Jesus comes.

Philippians 1:6b

My one hope and trust is that I shall never have to admit defeat, but that now as always I shall have the courage for Christ to be glorified in my body.

Philippians 1:20

Avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy of the Gospel of Christ.

Philippians 1:27

He has given you the privelege not only of believing in Christ but of suffering for Him as well.

Philippians 1:29

Be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind.

Philippians 2:2

There must be no competition among you, no conceit. Everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself, so that nobody thinks of his own interests first, but everybody thinks of other people’s interests instead. In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2:3-5

Work for your salvation in fear and trembling. It is God who puts both the will and the action into you.

Philippians 2:12b-13

Do all that has to be done without complaining or arguing, and then you will be innocent and genuine, perfect children of God among a deceitful and underhand brood, and you will shine in the world like bright stars because you are offering it the Word of Life.

Philippians 2:14-16

Rejoice in the Lord.

Philippians 3:1

I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For Him I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in Him. I am no longer trying for perfection by my own efforts, but I want only the perfection that comes through faith in Christ and is from God and based on faith. All I want is to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and to share His sufferings by reproducing the pattern of His death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come. I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upward to receive in Christ Jesus. We who are called “perfect” must all think in this way.

Philippians 3:8-15

Be united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody who is already doing this and study them as you used to study us.

Philippians 3:17

For us our homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the Savior we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of His glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which He can subdue the whole universe.

Philippians 3:20-21

Do not give way, but remain faithful in the Lord.

Philippians 4:1

Be happy, always happy in the Lord.

Philippians 4:4

Let your tolerance be evident to everyone.

Philippians 4:5a

The Lord is very near. There is no need to worry. If there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving.

Philippians 4:5b-6

Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honor, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise.

Philippians 4:8

I have learned to manage on whatever I have. I know how to be poor, and I know how to be rich too. I have been through my initiation and now I am ready for anything anywhere: full stomach or empty stomach, poverty or plenty. There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:11-13

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

Spiritual warfare

Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre...for it is very great? (Mark 16:3). Who rolled it away? An angel, at God's command. He will likewise roll away the stone of insensibility from our hearts, when the time is right for this. We must show faithfulness to the Lord during times of callousness, faintheartedness, doubts, coldness, times of sorrow, illness and various misfortunes. We must exert our will power to strengthen faith in ourselves when, by God's allowance, it seems to be all but extinguished. He permits this in order that we may show again and again what it is we are striving for, where our choice lies.

There is a saying among the elders: a good deed is either preceded or followed by a temptation. A good deed, such as heartfelt prayer, or especially Holy Communion, will not pass without the devil taking revenge. He uses all his might to prevent fruitful prayer and/or communion. If unable to achieve this, he then tries to spoil everything after the fact, so that not a trace of the benefit acquired remains. This is very familiar to all those who have some experience in spiritual endeavor. For this reason it is necessary to ask the Lord, with humility and contrition of heart, that He preserve us from the snares of the devil, who acts either directly upon the soul, or indirectly, through people subject to his power.

Do not be surprised at this. This warfare is fierce. Except the Lord build the house, in vain do they labour that build it. Except the Lord guard the city, in vain doth he watch that guardeth her (Psalm 126:1-2). We must surrender ourselves into the compassionate hands of God, acknowledging before Him our weakness and inability to guard ourselves from visible and invisible foes. Do not be afraid. The devil does not do what he would like, but only that which God allows him to do. Take a look at the book of Job.

May God's blessing always be with you. Never despair. May Christ's Cross always serve to remind you of God's boundless love toward fallen man. Is this thought not enough to inspire one to wholly give oneself over into God's hands? One must make at least a small effort to seek the Kingdom of God, and then the Lord will not leave such a person without His help and comfort. The Lord loves you! Have patience with the Lord.

— Abbot Nikon (Vorobyev) 1894-1963

Letters to Spiritual Children, published by Nikodemos Orthodox Publication Society

The Ephesian Rule

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

Before the world was made He chose us in Christ to be holy and spotless and to live through love in His presence, determining that we should become His adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for His own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of His grace, His free gift to us in the Beloved in whom, through His blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.

Ephesians 1:4-7

You have heard the message of the Truth and the Good News of your salvation and have believed it, and you have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for His own, to make His glory praised.

Ephesians 1:13-14

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of Him. May He enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope His call holds for you, what rich glories He has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that He has exercised for us believers.

Ephesians 1:17-19

Far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the age to come, He has put all things under His feet and made Him, as the ruler of everything, the Head of the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills the whole creation.

Ephesians 1:21-23

It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, not by anything of your own but by a gift from God, not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.

Ephesians 2:8-9

We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning He had meant us to live it.

Ephesians 2:10

You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors. You are citizens like all the saints and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations and Christ Jesus Himself for its main cornerstone. As every structure is aligned on Him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord, and you too, in Him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:19-22

Pray, kneeling before the Father.

Ephesians 3:14

Lead a life worthy of your vocation.

Ephesians 4:1

Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness, and patience.

Ephesians 4:2

Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.

Ephesians 4:3

There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all, and within all.

Ephesians 4:4-7

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ who is the Head by whom the whole Body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function. So the Body grows until it has built itself up, in love.

Ephesians 4:15-16

You must give up your old way of life. You must put aside your old self which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution, so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.

Ephesians 4:22-24

From now on, there must be no more lies. You must speak the truth to one another, since we are all parts of one another.

Ephesians 4:25

Even if you are angry, you must not sin. Never let the sun set on your anger, or else you will give the devil a foothold.

Ephesians 4:26-27

Anyone who was a thief must stop stealing. He should try to find some useful manual work instead and be able to do some good by helping others that are in need.

Ephesians 4:28

Guard against foul talk. Let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners. Otherwise you will only be grieving the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with His seal for you to be set free when the day comes.

Ephesians 4:29-30

Never have grudges against others, or lose your temper, or raise your voice to anybody, or call each other names, or allow any sort of spitefulness.

Ephesians 4:31

Be friends with one another, and kind, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.

Ephesians 4:32

Try to imitate God, as children of His that He loves, and follow Christ by loving as He loved you, giving Himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5:1-2

Among you there must be not even a mention of fornication or impurity in any of its forms, or promiscuity.

Ephesians 5:3

There must be no coarseness or salacious talk and jokes. All this is wrong for you. Raise your voices in thanksgiving instead.

Ephesians 5:4

You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord. Be like children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth.

Ephesians 5:8-9

Try to discover what the Lord wants of you, having nothing to do with the futile works of darkness but exposing them by contrast.

Ephesians 5:10-11

Be very careful about the sort of lives you lead. This may be a wicked age, but your lives should redeem it. Do not be thoughtless, but recognise what is the will of the Lord.

Ephesians 5:15-17

Do not drug yourselves with wine. This is simply dissipation. Be filled with the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18

Sing the words and tunes of the psalms and hymns when you are together, and go on singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts, so that always and everywhere you are giving thanks to God, who is our Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:19-20

Give way to one another in obedience to Christ.

Ephesians 5:21

Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife, and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything.

Ephesians 5:22-24

Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for her to make her holy.

Ephesians 5:25-26a

Each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and let every wife be subject to her husband.

Ephesians 5:33

Children, be obedient to your parents in the Lord, that is your duty.

Ephesians 6:1

Parents, never drive your children to resentment, but in bringing them up correct them and guide them, as the Lord does.

Ephesians 6:4

Slaves, be obedient to the men who are called your masters in this world, with deep respect and sincere loyalty, as you are obedient to Christ, not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please men, but because you are slaves of Christ and wholeheartedly do the will of God. Work hard and willingly, but do it for the sake of the Lord and not for the sake of men.

Ephesians 6:5-7

Grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of His power. Put God’s armor on so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics.

Ephesians 6:10-11

It is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens.

Ephesians 6:12

You must rely on God’s armor or you will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold your ground.

Ephesians 6:13

Stand your ground with Truth buckled around your waist, and Integrity for a breastplate, wearing for shoes on your feet the Eagerness to spread the Gospel of Peace, and always carrying the shield of Faith, so that you can use it to put out the burning arrows of the evil one. You must accept Salvation from God to be your helmet, and receive the Word of God from the Spirit to use as a sword.

Ephesians 6:14-17

Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion.

Ephesians 6:18

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

It is love that heals

Over the course of my life this thought keeps coming to me,
“It is not medicine that heals, it is love.”

I’ve said it to people in conversation, even to my personal physician on my last visit. I’ve written it to my closest friends in messages and emails. I’ve thanked God for it, the healing that comes from love, not just from the feeling of love, but from the actions that love inspires. I’ve reminisced how I used to hold my sons when they were very young, and sick with fever, sitting on my lap facing me, bare chest to bare chest, rocking them gently to calm them and to absorb the fever from their hot bodies into my cool one, or how as a sick and frightened child, one of them would slip into papa’s bed, to sleep in safety. And I’ve thought about the strange sharing of others’ sicknesses and distress by holding them close to my heart, spiritually, by prayer, and how they have done the same for me. As holy apostle Paul writes, ‘If one part suffers, every part suffers with it’ (1 Corinthians 12:26), to which verse my experiences have given very personal meaning.

Elder Païsios, one of my teachers, describes this same idea, that it is love that heals. The elder writes,

“You must make the other person’s pain your own, and then pray from your heart. Love is a divine attribute, and informs the other person [that you are praying for him]. Even in hospitals, when doctors and nurses feel genuine compassion for their patients, this is the most effective of all the medications to give to them. The patients feel they are being cared for with love, and have a sense of certainty, security and consolation. You do not need to say much to someone who is suffering, or try to instruct him. He understands that you feel his pain and care about him, and he is helped by this. Feeling his pain is everything. If we feel compassion for others, we forget ourselves and our problems.”

— Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain (Athos)

The Galatian Rule

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

If anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one we have already preached to you, whether it be ourselves or an angel from heaven, he is to be condemned. If anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one you have already heard, he is to be condemned.

Galatians 1:8-9

The Good News is not a human message given by men. It is something learned only through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:11-12

All baptised in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ, and there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:27-28

When Christ freed us, He meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

You were called to liberty, but be careful or this liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence.

Galatians 5:13

Serve one another in works of love, since the whole Law is summarised in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Galatians 5:14

If you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16

When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility, idolatry and sorcery, feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and similar things. Those who behave like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that.

Galatians 5:19-23

Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious.

Galatians 5:25-26

If one of you misbehaves, the more spiritual of you who set him right should do so in a spirit of gentleness, not forgetting that you may be tempted yourselves.

Galatians 6:1

You should carry each other’s troubles and fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

Don’t delude yourself into thinking God can be cheated: where a man sows, there he reaps.

Galatians 6:7

We must never get tired of doing good because if we don’t give up the struggle we shall get our harvest at the proper time. While we have the chance, we must do good to all, and especially to our brothers in the faith.

Galatians 6:9-10

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).

What everything hinges on

Eloquent speakers and articulate writers produce compelling expressions of truth, some to entertain others for the sake of praise, others because they have given themselves over to Christ without reserve. He can use both kinds of people and He does.

Sergey Fudel says in his book Light in the Darkness that it is not being unfaithful or disloyal to Orthodoxy to acknowledge and accept that an ancient Russian ikon of the Theotokos with Christ is not one painted by Luke the Evangelist, even though the Church believes it is.

But he does admit that when one goes in search of such anomalies or factual untruths, especially on things that don’t really matter, that this is acting and being against the Church.

Why is this?
Aren’t we bound by the word of Jesus to root out any untruth wherever we find it?

Well, yes, if it stares us in the face, yes, if it destroys souls, yes, if it reduces the house of God into a marketplace, yes, if it shuts up the kingdom of God in men’s faces. But no, if it assumes the priority in our lives, to be followed at all costs. Nothing and no one is to be followed at all costs, nothing and no one except Jesus.

This is where speculation rears it ugly head, ‘What would Jesus have done?’ turning into the monster ‘What Jesus commands us to do.’ This is the forbidden and unlawful fire that burned Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron, that kindled the furnace of the Inquisition, that lit the torch of sectarian hate during the Wars of Religion.

It is impossible that some things that the Church believes can have in fact happened the way they are handed down to us, yet believing them does not kill us, in this life or the other. What does kill us, here and in the world to come, is hatred of our brother disguised as the pursuit of truth.

The angle of the Throne which is the preserve of Orthodoxy is to live and let live in Christ, seeking not oneself but the other, as the hymn describes of Jesus, ‘By words, and signs, and actions, thus… Still seeking not Himself, but us’ (Hymn, O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High).

We know when people worship the Church wrongly, because they act like the prostitute who overlaid her newborn child and would rather cut in half the living newborn of her sister harlot than let her keep what was hers, since she could not have all for herself. The wise Solomon, in agreement with the Spirit, revealed whose was the child, and in a similar manner, we know whose is Jesus Christ. ‘Is Christ divided?’ challenges the apostle Paul (1 Corinthian 1:13).

We also know when people worship the Bible wrongly, because they use it as a weapon of real war, not a weapon of peace, for which it was revealed. No, not human peace, not the false peace and false agreement of the wicked, but the ‘peace on earth and good will towards men’ that the angels of Christ’s man-coming prophesy.

We will never come to terms with the living God, if we do not come to terms with living men. Everything hinges on the Incarnation. Every thought, word, idea, and hope can find validation and fulfillment only in the man-coming of God in Christ. He became, no, He becomes, one of us.

‘What, then, are you going to do with this Jew?’ asked the priest martyr of the Nazi officer, pointing to the cross he was wearing.