Care

Instead of an avenger, be a deliverer.
Instead of a fault-finder, be a soother.
Instead of a betrayer, be a martyr.
Instead of a chider, be a defender.

Beseech God on behalf of sinners that they receive mercy, and pray to Him for the righteous, that they be preserved.

— Isaac of Syria

Beauty

‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
— John Keats (1795–1821), Ode on a Grecian Urn

Early this morning I was at the market purchasing some medicine and a couple of items of grocery. As I was walking past the refrigerated displays, I approached a woman who was making a careful selection of a carton of eggs. Her back was to me, and she was rather tall, but she looked very familiar somehow.

A feeling of my childhood came over me and then quickly yielded to speculative thought. It is very cold today. Even though it is still November, an autumn month, the air has been very chilly this week. In fact, that's probably why I started to feel sick yesterday afternoon, catching a chill sitting at my desk at work. The office was very cold.

The woman was dressed in a simple but elegant long coat with luxurious fur collar, something that seemed a little out of place.

Her head was covered by a white scarf with subtle raised patterns on it. The way the head scarf was arranged over her head, combined with the long coat, and underneath a long skirt, summoned feelings I hadn't had since a young boy.

That's exactly how my grandmother dressed, my sophisticated Warsaw busia, who would never go out unless she was sure of being properly attired and head covered, but not with any old babuszka on her head, rather, something elegant like this woman's head covering. I could tell from her height and her confident stance, even from behind, she was no grandmother.

As I passed her, I very quickly and shyly looked at the face peering out of the white silken head scarf. Ah, just as I thought! An African woman. I looked hurriedly away so as not to make her uncomfortable. The speculation that my mind played with as I came up behind her, that she might be an Eastern European Orthodox woman, quickly dissipated.

One part of me fully expected to see a Polish or Russian face with rosy cheeks peering from under that headscarf, but another part of me wasn't surprised that it was probably an Ethiopian or even a Somali woman, though neither of them should have been dressed quite that way. The Somali women especially are too colorful, and their head coverings are Islamic.

This woman wore her clothing and scarf like a European woman. I'm still at a loss to decide what her ethnicity was, but she was definitely an African, and though I did not look at her facial features long enough to visualise them, I knew she was a beautiful woman. Her beauty radiated from her feminine heart, expressed in her choice of clothes, and her womanly confidence.

I haven't seen such women in a long time.

I grew up in inner city Chicago in the 1950's and early 60's. My mother wouldn't dream of leaving the house without something on her head. This wasn't just something to wear to church. No, every journey outside the home, her head was covered. My mother was very modern, though, and I knew by her style, she would do everything differently.

My older sister, five years my senior, reluctantly covered her head too when she went out, from about the age of 8 to her high school years. She would wear the head scarf, but once she passed the first house on the opposite side of the street, I think she often took it off and put it away in her purse. I did the same with my spectacles, because I was ashamed of being ‘four eyes.’

I remember, in my 7th and 8th grade class, most of the girls still tied at least a skimpy little scarf over their bouffant hair styles, and it made them look almost comical. They were all very pretty, and it seemed to me a bit ridiculous that they'd cover their heads like that. We were almost all second generation children of Polish, Ukrainian, Slovak, Greek and Italian immigrants.

We moved away suddenly as I entered high school to a new, suburban village where everyone was a transplant from somewhere else. Everyone had to form new relationships and evolve new customs and ways of dressing. I almost never saw girls or women with covered heads in that town, or anytime after that. Femininity would learn to express itself in a different way.

A lot of thoughts like these passed through my mind as I walked past the woman selecting eggs. The mystique of woman, something totally absent in today's society, was located in her. I could feel that too, and ‘I was awed by the beauty’ of it. Again, quickly, images of the Theotokos and all the women saints in the ikons, surrounding Christ the true Man, held me.

‘What have we lost?’ was answered with ‘What we have lost!’ in my rational mind, as I realised that I had just experienced a glimpse of a lost world, the world of my childhood, where men and women knew who they were, were confident enough in it that they could be different, where the secret doctrine of ‘man builds the outer world, woman nurtures the inner’ was still happening.

Strains of Chopin's Nocturne #2 in E-flat major drift through my head, as I remember that lost world. The autumn sun filtering in through the lace curtains in Busia's sitting room, as I sat quietly with her while she taught me to embroider. Embroider? Yes, for Poles it is not an art for women only. Perhaps my older sister was too rambunctious, but I could sit still.

Women's things were for women, and men's for men. Busia never went down to Grampa's workshop where he handcrafted small items of carved furniture. She let him be, and he returned the favor. There she was, all afternoon, tending the roses and vegetables in her half-lot garden, while he sat on a wooden stool talking man things with my other grandpa.

Beyond all argument in words, wisdom is proved by living, and living by the Word of God.

Good words to admonish the age

Can a man be of any use to God,

when even the wise man's wisdom is of use only to himself?

Does Shaddai derive any benefit from your integrity,

or profit from your blameless conduct?

Would He punish you for your piety,

and hale you off to judgment?

No, rather for your manifold wickednesses,

for your unending iniquities!

You have exacted needless pledges from your brothers,

and men go naked now through your despoiling;

you have grudged water to the thirsty man,

and refused bread to the hungry;

you have narrowed the lands of the poor man down to nothing

to set your crony in his place,

sent widows away empty-handed

and crushed the arms of orphans.

No wonder, then, if snares are all around you,

or sudden terrors make you afraid.

Light has turned to darkness and it blinds you,

and a flood of water overwhelms you.

Does not God live at the height of heaven,

and see the zenith of the stars?

Because He is far above, you said, ‘What does God know?

Can He peer through the shadowed darkness?’

The clouds, to Him, are an impenetrable veil,

and He prowls on the rim of the heavens.

And will you still follow the ancient trail

trodden by the wicked?

Those men who were borne off before their time,

with rivers swamping their foundations,

because they said to God, ‘Go away!

What can Shaddai do to us?’

Yet He Himself had filled their houses with good things,

while these wicked men shut Him out of their counsels.

At the sight of their ruin, good men rejoice,

and the innocent deride them:

‘See how their greatness is brought to nothing!

See how their wealth has perished in the flames!’

Well then! Make peace with Him, be reconciled,

and all your happiness will be restored to you.

Welcome the teaching from His lips,

and keep His words close to your heart.

If you return, humbled, to Shaddai

and drive all injustice from your tents,

if you reckon gold as dust

as Ophir as the pebbles of the torrent,

then you will find Shaddai worth bars of gold

or silver piled in heaps.

Then Shaddai will be all your delight,

and you will lift your face to God.

You will pray, and He will hear;

you will have good reason to fulfill your vows.

Whatever you undertake will go well,

and light will shine on your path;

for He that casts down the boasting of the braggart

is He that saves the man of downcast eyes.

If a man is innocent, He will bring him freedom,

and freedom for you if your hands are kept unstained.

— Eliphaz of Teman (quoted in Job, chapter 22)

Fully His

Since I am a fool, I want everyone to know. Stay away from me…

Most people, thank God, are way too smart, too educated and sophisticated to be wasting their time reading my humble blog.
To those who do, I apologise profusely.

I say that on a day to day basis, using a translation, an ordinary believer can read the scriptures with confidence that he or she can understand most of it, in its plain meaning. For those who are sourcing doctrines (quite a different application), I say that we need to study the original texts of the scriptures to be sure we have the correct understanding of them. A correspondent counters that there are many different versions of the original text, though the differences are trivial, and what do you do with passages that appear in some but not all versions? And what about people acting on texts they don't really understand? How exasperating!

Yes, which original text? And yes, the differences are trivial. And yes, there's that text about handling snakes, and yes, idiots try to force their way into God's hands by imitating such things and justifying themselves and their carnal and base beliefs, using it. And yes, something about that snake handling passage seems somehow inconsistent with the rest of God's Book, just as the other New Testament pseudepigrapha also seem somehow alien to the Spirit of the Bible. And yes, even if you leave it in, it’s still forcing yourself into God's hands to try to imitate that and seek your deliverance in it.

We are not idiots, however, we have minds and spirits trained by the Word of God, if we only let Him train us.

The Bible says, “You have not lost the anointing He gave you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. The anointing He gave you teaches you everything.”

Who writes this? The human author was John the author of the gospel and the epistles and the one to whom the Revelation was granted. And yes, I don't care what bible scholars tell me, I believe it is the same person, but, yes, it doesn't really matter, as long as we really believe what it says.

Because not man, not woman, not bible scholars, not pontiffs, not saints, not bishops and presiding elders, not the king, not the emperor, not my mother or father, not you, and not me have anything to add, elaborate, amplify, enlighten, make comprehensible or comprehensive, or more useful, or more relevant, than what God the Author, the Revealer, the Sanctifier, the Enlightener, the Teacher, the Father, the Savior tells us into our obedient and welcoming ears, directly and fully and without doubt, and salvifically.

No, we are not idiots. I do not pick up snakes to prove I am a Christian. I do not speak in strange tongues to prove that the Holy Spirit is in me, upon me, and with me. I don't need to prove my faithfulness to God's Word by going out and blasting sinners, holding them up to ridicule, hating them or judging them and excluding them from the promises of God.

But though everything be taken away from me, I will not, cannot deny the Word of God, and with the saints I will stand my ground, I will defend them even when I don't agree with them one hundred per cent, and I will stand on the Word of God, because there is no other foundation, there is nothing solid in the whole created universe to stand on, except that precious, holy, divine Word, who is the Son of God, one of the Holy Triad, glorified in the heavens and on earth, and fed to us spiritual infants, verse by verse, spoonful by spoonful, day after day, until we are fully grown and mature, fully reflecting His glory, fully alive in Him with that life that has existed from before the beginning of all things, fully His.

Conscience

Can I be anything other than what God has made me?

The answer to this question is both Yes and No.

Yes, I can be something other than what God has made me, by apostasy, by falling away from the truth, by letting myself be deflected from His will, by doing other than what I know He wants me to do, by making myself rather than letting Him make me, by choosing not to obey, by choosing my way over His, by stealing my freedom instead of waiting to inherit it, and then by spending that freedom in pursuit of nothing. Yes, I can be something other than what God has made me.

No, I cannot be something other than what God has made me. I can never be greater, wiser, stronger, richer, healthier, kinder, quicker, prettier, more handsome, more energetic, more creative, more talented, more generous, more glorious, or longer lived than He has made me, who created all, who knows all, who guides all, who nurtures all, who preserves all, and who loves all. No, whatever my efforts, I can never outdo for myself what God has done in making me.

This, I think, is another explanation of what we call our ‘conscience.’

Usually, when people talk about having a conscience, they’re thinking of our knowing the difference between right and wrong in a moral sense. We somehow are born with (or in some explanations, we acquire) the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and reason, which is humanity’s glory or shame, makes us know that to choose moral right is preferable over choosing moral wrong. We look at the world around us and at human history. We see people whom we call good and others we call bad.

There’s another level of this action of moral choice, though. We often are handed by our upbringing or our environment a second set of choices to be made which we incorporate into what we call our conscience, and these appear, even to us, as not quite moral choices, but choices to be made nonetheless. Some of them are tribal mores, some from family, others from the social or economic groups we’re part of, some from our religious affiliation, all claiming authority over us.

But back to what conscience really is, is it really moral discrimination residing in us, choosing between right and wrong in the sense of law? That is what we are led to believe, and thinking this way, we inflict upon ourselves both deserved and undeserved guilt when we make the wrong choice. Much of what lodges itself in the house of our ‘conscience’ is really squatters, not what has a right to live there, even on a moral level, just man-made laws and expectations sometimes even morally wrong.

Could it be that our conscience is really something more personal than just living up to or rejecting a moral law? Could it be the mechanism that the Lord has built into us when He made us, that lets us know when we are following His design for us, and when we are turning aside from it? He wants us to be what He created us to be, no less, no greater (that’s impossible), no different, but exactly what He had in Mind when He designed, formed, and finished us. Conscience helps our freedom find ourselves.

“Let your conscience be your guide.”

If we wait for Him at all

We know that the institutional church in all of its manifestations is
“a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid,” and so anyone passing by can look at it in the glory or in the humiliation of its past and present condition.

It takes as much faith to believe that what we are seeing as the Church is the Body of Christ as it does to look upon the man Jesus of Nazareth and believe that He is God, the Almighty. Yet He is, and so where does it leave us with regard to the Church?

Mocked, derided, stripped, scarred, gashed, sundered and pierced, the Body of Christ suffers with Jesus throughout all ages till the end of time and His return. Where we stand, what our response must be to His question, “And who do you say that I am?” will also show us where we stand with regard to the Church.

Though we see her faults, we also see and participate in her faith, and if we wait for Him at all, we must wait with her, His Bride.

What does Jesus do?

America, no less than most of the ‘civilised’ world, has had enough of Christianity. Either they're following it in a state that verges on apathy, boredom or worse, or they're not following it because they ‘know’ all about it and about its ‘founder.’

I think and I believe that the right approach for the time and place we find ourselves in is to follow Jesus as He walks in today's world, imitating Him, doing what we see Him doing.

He doesn't make use of technology, drama, music, tattoos, piercings, cultural relevance, inclusive language, or any contemporary evangelistic gimmicks. He doesn't pass out free bottles of spring water, or condoms, or tracts, or Chick comics. He doesn't set Himself up as this or that deliverance ministry. He doesn't take up collections or plead for offerings.

He is in the world today as He was two thousand years ago, simply as the Word of God. All He needs from us is our willingness to use our voices.

For what? To sing? To preach? No, not yet.

To witness, to give testimony? Well, maybe, but not at first, not before Him.

What, then? Simply to give our voices to the reading aloud of His Word out there in the world where people can hear it, without commenting on it, without preaching it, without prophesying it, without charging for it, without protecting it, without shortening it. Reading it just as it is, in a language that anyone who passes by can hear and understand, if they pause to listen.

And if they do, what is drawing them, or who? Is it us, the readers? No, it is the Word of God Himself who draws them. It is Jesus. They can't see Him, yet they can hear Him, and faith, as we know, comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

What if you are a media person and a follower of Jesus? Do not let the media you are using sculpt the shape of your call. Be sure that the gift God gives you in following Him depends on nothing and no one but Himself and you, without so much as a pencil and paper, let alone video equipment and software. The Word of God is the only sculptor of the Christian's call. Let your testimony be pure, unmixed wine that “runs on the lips of those who sleep” (Song of Solomon 7:10) to awaken them to the Truth. Don’t let the world drag you into its net, while you, the willing fish, think you’re catching it. Instead, you draw the world into His net, like the holy apostles did, who were fishers of men.

What is His net? It is the Word of God.
Who taught them to fish like that? It was the Holy Spirit.

Always give precedence to the Word, then your writing, your speaking, your witness, following in its wake, will open doors to the Father.

And He is faithful.

Treasure

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44

Somehow it seems that whenever people comment on this verse, they’re always thinking money and property. I know that Christ is couching this parable in those terms, but remember, this is a parable, and parables exist so that their application can range over a wide continuum of experiences.

Sometimes people take other stories of Jesus that are not parables and try to understand them as if they were, because if they were true and literal, the outcome is too terrifying. Such is the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man. The gospel does not call this a parable, and the Church has understood this to be a literal description (as far as mortal minds can apprehend it) of the state after physical death.

But this story is a parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” and so the application of it is wide open. Though in the Middle Ages the Western Church in particular read into this the ‘call’ to monasticism, I don’t believe the Eastern Church then or now reads it predominantly this way. The kingdom of heaven cannot be identified with any earthly, even churchly, institution such as monasticism, or even mission.

Instead, the kingdom of heaven is itself nothing more or less than the life of salvation, the belief in the claims of Jesus—“I am the Resurrection and the Life… Do you believe this?” (John, chapter 11). To one who knows the possibility and offer of eternal life through faith in Christ, this is the ultimate concern, the chance that must not be missed. Whatever he owns, he will dispense with to obtain it.

But it does seem like a business transaction. He goes and sells all he has, so that he can buy the field in which the treasure is buried. He could go by night when everyone is sleeping or on the Sabbath when everyone is in synagogue, dig up the treasure, pack it away carefully on his person, maybe disguised as a sack of turnips, and walk off with it. But there’s probably too much there, so he has to do it right.

He sells his other property, because he can see it’s not much, so he can buy the field, since the treasure buried there is so far beyond his meager possessions, that maybe he can trick the owner of the field to sell it to him. Doesn’t the owner of the field know about the treasure? Guess not. But this is a parable. There’s no amount of money that can buy the treasure in the field—salvation—only blood can, and as we know, it’s the Blood of the Lamb without spot, slain before the foundation of the world.

So where does that leave us? I think one of the best applications of this parable is to realize that our most valuable possessions: our personal freedom, our private opinions, our religious or sexual preferences (yes, sometimes they’re related), our social status, are really quite useless in the end, either to satisfy us or to even compare to the chance of obtaining the only treasure worth having—eternal life—and that this life is none other than life with God, in other words, salvation.

Myself, I ‘sold’ what was most valuable to me, that short list I mentioned above, to buy the field called ‘faith’ in which the treasure, ‘salvation through Christ’ was hidden.

I still drive a car, live in a comfortable home, have friends and hobbies, and go to church. But what changed was, yes, I don’t take refuge in those things anymore if I ever did. And yes, if I am deprived of all of that and more, as Job was, I will stand my ground in the field I bought, because the treasure I found there is inexhaustible and incomparably great.

Woman

"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety."
1 Timothy 2:11-15

It is biblical Orthodoxy to take this passage as it stands, and feminism is anathema.

We do follow traditions, but not necessarily those of men: some are of divine origin and cannot be changed. Others are admittedly human conventions, and can change with the times. Nothing explicit in the Word of God, such as the passage quoted above, can change.

Why then do we not make women cover their heads in worship, or men uncover them?
Does God really care?

We are all apostates from the Word of God, some of us running away from it, others trying to retrace our steps back to it. But either way, though heaven and earth pass away, this Word shall never pass away. We're simply stuck with it.

Does God really care if we cover our heads in worship if we are women and uncover them if we are men?

I don't think He cares about the action of covering or uncovering, or the state of being covered or uncovered, as much as He cares about the state of our souls, hearts, minds, spirits and bodies, in short, about us as He made us and intended us to be.

The externals, though, are part of the full commandment that the Lord expects us to obey. We are only making it harder on ourselves and prolonging our exile from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by picking and choosing what we want to obey and what we want to disobey, calling some commandments mere human convention.

The Word of God does not lie, because God does not lie. But we do—to Him, to others, and to ourselves.

May the Lord give us all time to repent and to accept Him wholeheartedly and, doing what pleases Him, let our obedience produce faith, so that by faith we can be saved.

Lord, have mercy on us!

Back to basics

ο ποιμήν ο καλός

(oh pee-MEEN oh ka-LOSS)

‘the Good Shepherd’

Notice that both the rewarded and the condemned refer to Christ as “Lord,” clearly acknowledging His divinity, but as Christ asserts in the gospel according to Luke, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) Both the ikon above and the text cited below it come from the weekly bulletin of my church, Aghía Triás, Portland, Oregon. The ikon is rustic in style, like the simple faith it represents, the simple trust in the Good Shepherd, who is the Word of God and Who said, “The sheep that belong to Me listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)

Here in America, but also in other “Christian” lands, we find ourselves living inside the ruins of a great and ancient civilisation, one which bequeathed us not only spiritual values but cultural and material benefits as well. This civilisation is patronisingly called “Judæo-Christian” and the sacred name of it is pulled out of safekeeping whenever anyone wants to press their point of view. An example of this that everyone knows, is when someone who calls himself a Christian pulls out of context a bible verse or passage to legitimize his personal opinion. This is the downside of ‘proof texting.’ That doesn't mean that every quoting of scripture is invalid; it just means that there are two ways of using the written Word of God: either you submit your ideas to what the Word declares and let your mind be formed by Christ (that is, having the ‘mind of Christ’); or you develop a personal philosophy and then go fetch bible verses that seem to bolster your thoughts, in case you want to appear to have the mind of Christ.

If the Son of God, the Word of the Father through whom all things were made, the Light of the world which that world cannot overcome, if He emptied Himself to assume the conditions of a slave, suffering for our sake, and dying to pay the debt of each and every one of us, on the Cross, if He went down to She‘ol to yank Adam and Eve by their wrists out of their deathly misery along with everyone else from righteous Abel to John the Baptist, and place them in paradise with Abraham and the good thief, if He rose from the dead, taking death captive, and after establishing the saints on earth as His Bride, ascended to the right hand of the Father to intercede for us, if He did all that, and we spend ourselves in entertainment and call it ‘worship,’ take Bible cruises, listen to self-improvement and ‘God wants you to be prosperous’ talking books, and if there's anything left over, help the convenient needy of our choice, is it any small wonder that the world which Christ came to save plays with our leftovers and says, “oh, nothing special, just a gospel message!”

The good news drew crowds in the days of the Apostles. Why do we now have to run after the unsaved and shove tracts in their faces?

The preaching of John Chrysostom and Basil (the Great) drew crowds in the days of the Christian Roman Empire, no matter what the time of day or the season. Why do we try to fill our empty assembly halls with “spiritual” bread and circuses?

The signs and wonders of our Christian ancestors were changed lives, which in turn changed society. Instead, we have people standing around downtown holding signs that say “Portland, you need to change!” and followup is such things as a program of praise music!

Now, there's nothing wrong with worship and praise, except when we deceive ourselves into believing that worship and praise happens between the hours of church services or Christian concerts. In the heavenlies, the worship is unceasing, according to the will of God. And don't we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”?

Jesus told Photiní (the woman at the well), “…true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth: That is the kind of worshipper the Father wants.” (John 4:23)

What is worship in Spirit and Truth?

Holy apostle Paul's answer was, in part, “I worship spiritually by preaching the Good News…” (Romans 1:8 JB) Speaking more directly to us, Paul also wrote, “Think of God's mercy, my brothers, and worship Him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God. Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the world around you, but let your behavior change, modeled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.” (Romans 12:1-2 JB)

Where am I going with all this?

By our willingness to read the Word of God publicly outside of church, we are being taught many things. Christ wants to gather His lost sheep. It's too late—“the time is close” Revelation 1:3—to deliberate and develop programs. We waste valuable time. The Word of God, the Holy Scripture, is already everything we need to accomplish what He sent us forth to do: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19).

The churches are, by and large,
pitifully asleep, enmeshed
in the cares of the world.
Why do I think this?

Ask any Christian,
where his/her bible is right now.
Ask what book, passage or verse
did he/she read this morning.
Ask how long did he/she spend
praying yesterday.
Ask how long since he/she had
a one-on-one, deep, spiritual fellowship with another Christian.

The churches have produced the very things they say they are against, by the refusal of most of their ministers and people to put God first in their lives. Every pierced and tattooed ‘Goth’ has both a mother and a father who, in their turn, have a mother and a father.
Was the youth I often see downtown, who has images of barbed wire tattooed all across his face, born that way?

Jesus Christ has already won the victory over sin, hell and death.
About His Bride, the Church, the ‘Christian people’ He says (speaking to His heavenly Father), “May they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.” (John 18:21, Jerusalem Bible) How can we be one in God the Trinity as Jesus prays, and at the same time not live in His victory over sin, hell and death? Impossible.

The time is close.
Now, if never before,
read the book of Revelation.
Read it every day.
It is like a “fifth gospel.”
Don't try to interpret it.

It's a mystery to him who seeks to open its seals, but it is revealed to him who trusts the Lamb of God, the Only Worthy One, to open the seals.
Just read the book, and read it aloud, and read it to others, your family, your friends, whoever will listen.
It is not a literary relic of the apostolic age.
It is not just a source for Orthodox liturgica.
It is exactly what it says about itself.
It's the only book of the bible with this blessing attached:
“Happy the man who reads this prophecy,
and happy those who listen to him, for the time is close.”
(Revelation 1:3 JB)

Read it as personally addressed to you, and the Lord will reveal to you what His instructions are for you.
Will He do that the first time?
Probably not, but by the tenth time you will begin to understand.

What! Do I have to read it
over and over again?
Yes. This is how we keep our lamps lit,
we keep filling them with oil.
(see Matthew 25:1-13)

What else? Back to basics.
You really do have to put God first.
You can't fake it.
You can go to church all you want,
but you cannot avoid
the winnowing fork of the Lord.
You can't hide forever what kind of seeds you've planted.
Judgment begins now, but it takes a long time… maybe.

The pious Jews have a saying, “Repent one day before your death.”
God is being patient with all of us.
He doesn't want us to lose any more of our children by drugs, sex and suicide.

What? You don't have any children?
Think again, if you're a Christian reading these words.
As Francesco of Assisi proclaimed, echoing Christ His Master,
“There are no more fathers. There are no more sons. And everyone who has left fathers and mothers, children, lands for the sake of our heavenly Father will receive a hundred times more in the life to come…”

We are all His children, and all His children are ours.
“You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only One Father, and He is in heaven.”
(Matthew 23:9)

If your church has a lot of members, if they're enrolled in lots of classes, seminars, programs and groups, if they give lavishly, how many of them have made the Word of God their home?
How many are stepping out, every day, in faith to the lost, calling them ‘brother’ and acting likewise?

It's hard to get the unsaved to trust us,
because we have let them down.
Now, we have to break through the protective walls,
and show them Jesus.
If we are following along behind Him,
neither we nor they have anything to fear anymore.

There's no loss with Jesus.

Neck and neck with a rainbow

Pastors are called by that name because ‘pastor’ means shepherd. Shepherd of what? Of the sheep, of course! What sheep? Why, as we are called in the Psalms, “the sheep of His pasture, the flock that He guides” (Psalm 95:7). You know, the people of God! That means us!
But are we really sheep, after all?

Sometimes I think we are sheep. We certainly act like them. We seem not to have minds of our own. We just follow the flock, and the flock is following the bellwether. But who is the bellwether following? Is he following the shepherd or not? Which shepherd?
Christ, of course!

And we like our sheep pens so well that we just stay in them day in, day out enjoying each other’s presence, basking in all that fluffy wool. Meanwhile, our shepherds are busy making sure none of us get out, making sure we’re producing enough wool, for the bigger the take, the more in they rake. Who cares about the gospel according to John, chapter 10… ?

“I am the Gate. Anyone who enters through Me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture”.
John 10:9

What’s that supposed to mean? Never mind, just don’t let them read the next verse…

Sometimes I think we are anything but sheep. We haven’t a mind to listen, we have no time to follow the voice of our Master, we seem to have tuned in to a completely different voice—our own. As for the shepherds, well, we hire the ones we like, that make our ears itch. Itch for what? Itch for anything that’s fun to hear, anything that distracts us so we don’t hear the voice of the Shepherd, the real Shepherd.

We’ll have pastors, we’ll lavish them with all the honor and respect they (think they) deserve, and we’ll do as we please. What about God? Who needs Him? Everyone of us, including our shepherds, are little gods. This flock has gone south: we’re all shepherds and no sheep. But please, don’t take our pen away from us, and don’t talk to us about ‘making the journey out and in.’ Follow Jesus? Who’s He?

I am Greek Orthodox by culture, choice and call, but I am a follower of Jesus, and I do not witness for the Church. I witness for Christ, and He witnesses for the Church.

I hadn't thought of it before, but I think in the Church today, elders are more needed than pastors. In fact, I haven't seen anyone lately in any church, including my own, who has the title and office of ‘pastor’ actually doing their job—unless, of course, the job description has been rewritten.

They have plenty of time on their hands, and where there’s plenty of time, they’ll fill it with something. The ‘parameters’ of being a pastor in today’s churches have shrunk to nearly nothing when it comes to caring for the sheep. Well, of course, there really aren’t any sheep nowadays. They’ve all grown up and become private persons, and so, what’s a pastor to do? Become a private person himself. “Take a number, please!” … “Next!” … “Sorry! Closed for clergy retreat. Come again!”

On the other hand, elders, well, I think there are a lot of men (and women) who are elders in the Body of Christ, but they are not identified as such, either by themselves or by their churches. And why not? I think it's because the ministry is seen as a profession, like doctors and lawyers. But I don't care how many degrees and letters after their names people have, if they are going to be ministers of the gospel, they are simply not professionals in that sense of the word.

Elders, though, are not trained in seminaries and funded by congregations. They simply are what they are, and when we’re fortunate enough to discover who they are, we never come away from them without being blessed. They follow Jesus without pay, and love without limit. There are more of them among us than we realize. Pastors will sometimes point out and praise some of the ‘leaders’ in their congregations, but it is rarely the elders. It is usually other men and women of their class, professionals, who have made ‘outstanding contributions to the cause of…’ Yes, some churches even call them ‘archons.’

A professional stands on his attainments, feels he or she deserves a level of respect (or even worship!) that goes with the position of having studied so hard and written all those papers. But a minister of the gospel, as far as I can see it, is one who follows Christ's every move, hangs on His every word, and does what He sees the Master doing, tells what He hears the Master speak. He wouldn't think himself anymore a professional than did Peter, James or John… or even Paul (unless he considered his tent making business a profession).

Sad to say, institutional Christianity (Greek Orthodox included) is bent on turning itself into a religious brand alongside the non-religious brands, in the marketplace of ideas and cultures, and so its leaders really do have to lead, really must have professional credentials and aspirations—and expectations. If they don’t, how will they keep up? I ask myself, ‘Don’t they know they’re trying to race neck and neck with a rainbow?’ And what is a rainbow? Some colors in a mist that will vanish as soon as a cloud blocks out the sun.

I am not sure it isn’t already too late to expect real pastors for real churches, or to use biblical language, real shepherds for real sheep. But whatever else is true, the Word of God is still the same, and He says this about shepherds, and about sheep…

The one who enters through the Gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice.
John 10:1-4

I am the Gate…
John 10:9

Yes, I know. I am a fool. No need to point out the obvious. That would only make you as great a fool as I am. But the Word of God is still true, and I thank God for the elders still among us, and for any real shepherds who come our way, and for any of us who still be sheep. Who they can be, God knows, but the goats are such as I.

A Christian asks himself

How can I be living my life as though the resurrection didn’t really happen?
I say, “Christos anesti” with my lips, but what do I say with my heart?
What do I say with my life?

What is belief?
Is it just the mental agreement that a statement is true without experiencing the truth it expresses?

Can I live my life in the resurrection of Jesus while living it as though He did not die on the cross, and die on the cross for me?
I can humbly bow and cross myself with my body and kiss His image, but what worship does my spirit offer?

But the hour will come—in fact it is here already—when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants.
John 4:23 JB

Can I believe in the resurrection without believing in the Lord’s death?
How can I believe in the Lord’s death without experiencing it?
Can I believe in it by attending the services, or reading the bible, or is there more to believing than being a “good Christian”?
And what is a good Christian?

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 16:24-25 JB

“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
—Jim Elliot, Martyr of Ecuador

Can’t I be a follower of Jesus without dying?
Isn’t all the talk about being buried with Christ in my baptism just a metaphor?
But if it is, what is there to do?

Back to my original question, why am I living as though the resurrection didn’t really happen?
Is it really because I don’t believe in the death of Christ and in the power of His life-giving cross?
What is this “power” of the cross?

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.
Philippians 3:10 JB

Living as though the death of the Lord did happen will give you the power to live your life as though the resurrection did happen.
There is not one without the other.

You cannot live as though Jesus Christ died on the cross,
and still lie, steal and kill.
You cannot live as though He died for you,
and still treat others with disrespect.
You cannot live as though He endured temptation,
and still fornicate, alone or with another.
You cannot live as though He said from the cross,
‘Father, forgive them,’
and still hold grudges, envy the good fortune of others,
and judge your neighbor.
You cannot live as though He endured being stripped naked
and beaten,
and still look the other way and wink at wickedness,
and let the innocent be slaughtered.

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 JB

“Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: My own will shall become yours.’…”
—C. S. Lewis

So, this is the way to live a resurrected life, to live as though the resurrection of Christ really happened, to know that it happened, not just to say I believe in it:
To live a dying life, to let Christ nail not only my sins, but also my very self, what I think is me, what I think I want, to the cross.

…the thing that is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable; the thing that is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; the thing that is sown is weak but what is raised is powerful; when it is sown it embodies the soul, when it is raised, it embodies the spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 JB

If we have died with him, then we shall live with him.
2 Timothy 2:11 JB

Lord, let me live as though You really rose from the dead, by living as though You really died for me.

Holy Triad

No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendor of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the One. When I think of any One of the Three, I think of Him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking of escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that One so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.

You ask, “What is the procession of the Holy Spirit?” Tell me first, what is the unbegottenness of the Father, and I will then explain to you the physiology of the generation of the Son, and the procession of the Spirit, and we shall both of us be stricken with madness for prying into the mystery of God.

—Gregory Nazianzus

War at the exit door

Once again I have to share this poem that has pierced my heart, like prophet-king David (no, the sons of Korach) uttering, “deep is calling to deep as your cataracts roar, all your waves, your breakers, have rolled over me…” (Psalm 42:7)

War at the exit door

by Yudi Kristanto

Among the wolves and lions

snakes kiss my legs
I stepped outside through the gate of red
above the stream of fresh water
thus I jumped into water and the fish lift me up
fish with big scales

Fall on me O bridge
tear me down till I am no more
Fish, do you have that cure
I want to drink it
and sleep long

Water in
water in
fill me till I am one with you
breath you in
breath you out

war at exit door
now I have been at the gate
with your sword, stab me O brightest hero
and throw me to the river

More poems like this one can be found HERE.

Bless my enemies, O Lord

I am going through a place right now where there are those who are waiting in ambush for my soul, my life. This prayer I want to keep close to me, as I pass through there. Though the way is a suffering way, the destination is joy. Pray this with me, Son, and we will arrive there together.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.
Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have.
Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.
Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world.
Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an un-hunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.
Even I bless them and do not curse them.
They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.
They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself.
They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments.
They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself.
They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.
Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish.
Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf. Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.
WheneverI have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.
Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.
Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.
Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.
Even I bless them and do not curse them.
Bless them and multiply them;
multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:
so that my fleeing to You may have no return;
so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;
so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul;
so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger;
so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows,
that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.
One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.
It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good
and who has done me more evil in the world:
friends or enemies.

Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my enemies.
A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand.
But a son blesses them, for he understands.
For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life.
Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them.

Bless my enemies, O Lord.
Even I bless them and do not curse them.

— Nikolaj Velimirović

Things I’ve said before

The author of this blog is not a theologian trained in schools where they study what cannot be studied—theology.

He studied the humanities, something which can be studied because it is worldly, human knowledge.

He drew his faith and piety from parádhosis (παραδοσις, "handing over the goods").

He received it in the way faith and piety are transmitted—from teacher to disciple, from parent to child, from elder to disciple, from Christian to Christian, in other words, by personal relationship.

For this reason he is one who experiences divine things, not one who learns about them, having faith as a guide and not knowledge (encyclopedic-scientific information).

He “walks by faith and not by sight,” as Apostle Paul says
(2 Corinthians 5:7).

This is why his words sometimes seem harsh. He does not entertain the compromises that reveal little faith, nor accommodations to avoid being unpleasant to people of contrary views, nor any false brotherliness.

He believes at all times that “honesty is the best policy.”

“…it will be no use… to sail for the World’s End with men unwilling or men deceived.”

C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Whether you have a degree or not (I don't), whether you're ordained or not (I'm not), as a follower of Jesus there isn't a moment when you're not available for ministry, not a location where you're exempt from doing His will. It's all just a matter of choice.

Not only in a ‘Christian’ context does the seed of the Word get planted in the souls around us by every action, every word, even every thought that issues from our being.

The call of Jesus is so fundamental, so basic, so universal, and so available (in the Word of God) that most people miss it.

The incense smoke screen between the sacred and profane is pierced by a mere puff of breath, of the Holy Breath (το πνευμα το αγιον, to pnévma to ághion) who lives in us.

It's good to say, “His will, not mine.” As a follower of Jesus, it's good to keep repeating in your heart, “Not my will, but Yours, not my thoughts, but Yours, not my love, but Yours, not my life, but Yours.”

Over and over, we whisper it under our breath, we wake up hearing it flowing as the blood pulsing through our temples, we feel it reverberating with our every heartbeat. It is the background silence (ησυχία, isychía) to our waking stream of thought.

Everything is consecrated now, all water is holy water, all paths walked in obedience to the call of Jesus become paths to paradise, though they pass through the valley of the shadow of death.

Go with God, dear brethren, and pray for Romanós the sinner who prays for you.
I am here with you.

The cost of indifference

Thinking again about this campaign on the part of a group that calls itself the American Humanist Association to propagate their opinions as mainstream while denigrating the Judaeo-Christian ethos, I picked up a little book that is always at hand, Pensées by Blaise Pascal. Whenever I think of humanism, I think of Pascal, for not only was he a prodigious mathematician, physicist, inventor and writer, but he was also an outstanding example of a Christian humanist. Yes, there was and is such a thing, and I certainly hope that I am one. I try to be.

Where I opened Pensées at random and started reading was a passage that represented the thought process of a man indifferent to God, and what Pascal had to say about him. This is Pascal at his densest—what I mean is, it's hard to read him because he says more than the words say on the surface, and it's all so true. He doesn't quote scripture in this passage, which is unusual, as his Pensées is a treasure trove of biblical texts and rambling thoughts about them, but a true disciple of Jesus he was, and he was found at his death to have been carrying his handwritten testimony of his saving encounter with Christ sewn into the lining of the jacket he always wore.
I can relate to that.

Here is the passage, which I would call, The cost of indifference.
People haven't changed much in three hundred years.
Do you know anyone who could be saying this today? I do.

‘I do not know who put me in the world, nor what the world is, nor what I am myself. I am terribly ignorant about everything.

‘I do not know what my body is, or my senses, or my soul, or even that part of me which thinks what I am saying, which reflects about everything, and about itself, and does not know itself any better than it knows anything else.

‘I see the terrifying spaces of the universe hemming me in, and I find myself attached to one corner of this vast expanse without knowing why I have been put in this place rather than that, or why the brief span of life allotted to me should be assigned to one moment rather than another of all the eternity which went before me and all that which will come after me.

‘I see only infinity on every side, hemming me in like an atom or like the shadow of a fleeting instant. All I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least about is this very death which I cannot evade.

‘Just as I do not know whence I come, so I do not know whither I am going. All I know is that when I leave this world I shall fall for ever into nothingness or into the hands of a wrathful God, but I do not know which of these two states is to be my eternal lot.
Such is my state, full of weakness and uncertainty.

‘And my conclusion from all this is that I must pass my days without a thought of seeking what is to happen to me.

‘Perhaps I might find some enlightenment in my doubts, but I do not want to take the trouble, nor take a step to look for it:
And afterwards, as I sneer at those who are striving to this end—whatever certainty they have should arouse despair rather than vanity—I will go without fear or foresight to face so momentous an event, and allow myself to be carried off limply to my death, uncertain of my future state for all eternity.’

Who would wish to have as a friend a man who argued like that?
Who would choose him from among others as a confidant in his affairs?
Who would resort to him in adversity?
To what use in life could he possibly be turned?

It is truly glorious for religion to have such unreasonable men as enemies:
Their opposition represents so small a danger that it serves on the contrary to establish the truths of religion.

For the Christian faith consists almost wholly in establishing these two things:
The corruption of nature and the redemption of Christ.

Now, I maintain that, if they do not serve to prove the truth of the redemption by the sanctity of their conduct, they do at least admirably serve to prove the corruption of nature by such unnatural sentiments.

Nothing is so important to man as his state: nothing more fearful than eternity.
Thus the fact that there exist men who are indifferent to the loss of their being and the peril of an eternity of wretchedness is against nature.

With everything else they are quite different; they fear the most trifling things, foresee and feel them; and the same man who spends so many days and nights in fury and despair at losing some office or at some imaginary affront to his honor is the very one who knows that he is going to lose everything through death but feels no anxiety nor emotion.

It is a monstrous thing to see one and the same heart at once so sensitive to minor things and so strangely insensitive to the greatest.

The Apostolic Rule: Living in Love

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

The teaching of holy apostle Peter…

Free your minds of encumbrances. Control them, and put your trust in nothing but the grace that will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:13

Do not behave in the way that you liked to before you learned the truth. Make a habit of obedience. Be holy in all you do, since it is the Holy One who has called you, and scripture says, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’
1 Peter 1:14-16

Let your love for each other be real and from the heart.
1 Peter 1:22b

Be sure you are never spiteful, or deceitful, or hypocritical, or envious and critical of each other. You are newborn and, like babies, you should be hungry for nothing but milk, the spiritual honesty which will help you to grow up to salvation.
1 Peter 2:1-2

He is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him. Set yourselves close to Him so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house.
1 Peter 2:4-5

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light,
1 Peter 2:9

While you are visitors and pilgrims, keep yourselves from the selfish passions that attack the soul. Always behave honorably among pagans so that they can see your good works for themselves.
1 Peter 2:11-12a

For the sake of the Lord, accept the authority of every social institution.
1 Peter 2:13a

You are slaves of no one except God, so behave like free men, and never use your freedom as an excuse for wickedness.
1 Peter 2:16

Wives should be obedient to their husbands. If there are some husbands who have not yet obeyed the Word, they may find themselves won over without a word spoken, by the way their wives behave, when they see how faithful and conscientious they are.
1 Peter 3:1-2

Husbands must always treat their wives with consideration in their life together, respecting a woman as one who is equally an heir to the life of grace.
1 Peter 3:7

Agree among yourselves and be sympathetic. Love the brothers. Have compassion and be self-effacing. Never pay back one wrong with another; instead, pay back with a blessing. That is what you are called to do.
1 Peter 3:8-9

No one can hurt you if you are determined to do only what is right. If you do have to suffer for being good, you will count it a blessing.
1 Peter 3:13-14a

Never let your love for each other grow insincere, since love covers over many a sin.
1 Peter 4:8

Welcome each other into your houses without grumbling.
1 Peter 4:9

Put yourselves at the service of others. If you are a speaker, speak in words which seem to come from God. If you are a helper, help as though every action was done at God’s orders.
1 Peter 4:10b-11a

Be the shepherds of the flock of God that is entrusted to you. Watch over it not simply as a duty, but gladly, because God wants it, not for sordid money, but because you are eager to do it. Never be a dictator over any group that is put in your charge, but be an example that the whole flock can follow.
1 Peter 5:2-3

Do what the elders tell you, and all wrap yourselves in humility to be servants of each other.
1 Peter 5:5

Bow down before the power of God now, and He will raise you up on the appointed day. Unload all your worries onto Him, since He is looking after you. Be calm but vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat. Stand up to him, strong in faith and in the knowledge that your brothers all over the world are suffering the same things.
1 Peter 5:6-9

By His divine power He has given us all the things that we need for life and for true devotion, bringing us to know God Himself, who has called us by His own glory and goodness. In making these gifts, He has given us the guarantee of something very great and wonderful to come: through them you will be able to share the Divine Nature and to escape corruption in a world that is sunk in vice. But to attain this you will have to do the utmost yourselves, adding goodness to the faith that you have, understanding to your goodness, self-control to your understanding, patience to your self-control, true devotion to your patience, kindness toward your fellow men to your devotion, and to this kindness, love. If you have a generous supply of these, they will not leave you ineffectual or unproductive: they will bring you to a real knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But without them a man is blind or else short-sighted; he has forgotten how his past sins were washed away.
2 Peter 1:3-9

Brothers, you have been called and chosen: work all the harder to justify it.
2 Peter 1:10

It was not any cleverly invented myths that we were repeating when we brought you the knowledge of the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; we had seen His majesty for ourselves.
2 Peter 1:16

Depend on prophecy and take it as a lamp for lighting a way through the dark until the dawn comes and the morning star rises in your minds. Be most careful to remember that the interpretation of scriptural prophecy is never a matter for the individual. No prophecy ever came from man’s initiative. When men spoke for God it was the Holy Spirit that moved them.
2 Peter 1:19b-21

As there were false prophets in the past history of our people, so you too will have your false teachers who will insinuate their own disruptive views and disown the Master who purchased their freedom. They will destroy themselves very quickly, but there will be many who copy their shameful behavior.
2 Peter 2:1-2a

Be careful not to get carried away by the errors of unprincipled people from the firm ground that you are standing on. Instead, go on growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 3:17b-18a

The teaching of holy apostle John…

If we say that we are in union with God while we are living in darkness, we are lying, because we are not living the truth. But if we live our lives in the light as He is in the light, we are in union with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son purifies us from all sin.
1 John 1:6

If we say we have no sin in us we are deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the truth. But if we acknowledge our sins, then God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and purify us from everything that is wrong.
1 John 1:8-9

If anyone should sin we have our advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ who is just. He is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours, but the whole world’s.
1 John 2:1b-2

We can be sure that we know God only by keeping His commandments.
1 John 2:3

We can be sure that we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in Him is living the same kind of life as Christ lived.
1 John 2:5b-6

You must not love this passing world or anything that is in the world.
1 John 2:15

You have all been anointed by the Holy One and have all received the knowledge.
1 John 2:20

Keep alive in yourselves what you were taught in the beginning.
1 John 2:24a

You have not lost the anointing that He gave you, and you do not need anyone to teach you: The anointing He gave teaches you everything. You are anointed with the truth, not with a lie. As it has taught you, so must you stay in Him.
1 John 2:27

We are already the children of God, but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed. All we know is that when it is revealed, we shall be like Him, since we shall see Him as He really is.
1 John 3:2

Do not let anyone lead you astray: to live a holy life is to be holy just as He is holy.
1 John 3:7

If you refuse to love, you must remain dead; to hate your brother is to be a murderer.
1 John 3:15

Our love is not to be just words or mere talk but something real and active. Only by this can we be certain that we are children of the truth.
1 John 3:18-19a

Whatever we ask Him, we shall receive, because we keep His commandments and live the kind of life that He wants.
1 John 3:22

It is not every spirit that you can trust. Test them to see if they come from God. There are many false prophets now in the world.
1 John 4:1

Let us love one another since love comes from God, and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
1 John 4:7

Anyone who loves God must also love his neighbor.
1 John 4:21b

Loving God is keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not difficult.
1 John 5:3b-4a

If anybody sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to the sinner.
1 John 5:16a

Be on your guard against false gods.
1 John 5:21

If anybody does not keep within the teaching of Christ but goes beyond it, he cannot have God with him: only those who keep to what He taught can have the Father and the Son with them.
2 John 1:9

If anyone comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not receive him in your house or even give him a greeting. To greet him would make you a partner in his wicked work.
2 John 1:10

The teaching of the holy apostle Jude…

Fight hard for the faith which has been once and for all entrusted to the saints.
Jude 1:3b

Use your most holy faith as your foundation and build on that, praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves within the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you eternal life.
Jude 1:20-21

When there are some who have doubts, reassure them. When there are some to be pulled from the fire, pull them out. But there are others to whom you must be kind with great caution, keeping your distance even from outside clothing which is contaminated by vice.
Jude 1:22-23

All texts are taken from the Jerusalem Bible (1966).
Click on the link below to download the book from which this post and the others in this series were taken.

The Apostolic Rule — Passages pulled from all the epistles of the New Testament and organized by book, that reveal how simple and direct are the instructions that the apostles have left us about how to live the Christian life.