The Apostolic Rule: Thessalonians

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).

The Apostolic Rule: Colossians

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).

The Apostolic Rule: Philippians

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).

First the Kingdom

It is still the Apostles’ Fast for a few more days. This year it has been a relatively long one for us bi-calendarists. In some years this second of the four yearly fasts is reduced to a mere two or three days, even disappearing altogether when the forced reconciliation of the old and new calendars, Julian and Gregorian, squeeze it out. It’s a lenient fast. Fish, not just seafood, spineless or in the shell, is ‘allowed’ most of the days. Dairy products and olive oil, I’m not sure about because I am not such a stickler. Though two- and four-legged flesh doesn’t cross my palate these days, milk, cheese, and an occasional egg do. I’m primarily a vegetarian anyway. Who needs to ‘kill and eat’ when the diet of Adam and Eve surrounds you in abundance? If nothing else, for me the Apostles’ Fast is a time of fruitfulness, literally. Every good thing is in season—grapes, cherries, peaches, melons. Let the chickens and lambs live.

Of course, this isn’t what the Apostles’ Fast is for, a seasonal change from a diet of fatty, artificially sweetened, processed and preserved foods, though it does work that way too, if you at least follow the rules and ‘go with the flow.’ Is my prayer and worship life expanded during this time? Am I being more charitable with the poor, or at least pouring more money into the collection plate? Am I fulfilling my religious obligations to ‘make a good fast’? Hardly. Neither do I see anyone else living in a different, more consecrated manner, during these days. Of course, I shouldn’t see them fasting, that’s a given. ‘Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward’ (Matthew 6:16). We certainly know how to follow this word of Jesus, well, sort of, avoiding hypocrisy by not fasting at all.

Years ago I read somewhere, that the Apostles’ Fast was instituted as a practical measure completely integrated with the life of the Church. The entire Church year, in fact, was deliberately designed, not only to give structure to our faith, but to train the people of God and equip them to fulfill their call, individually and corporately, what we would now term our ‘ministries.’ Church leaders, now devolved almost exclusively to the ordained clergy, were then something more like coordinators and mentors, elected by Christ to ‘make disciples’ in literal fulfillment of His command, ‘Therefore go and make disciples’ (Matthew 28:19). Now that ‘the whole world has heard the gospel,’ it seems that ‘the end has come’ (see Matthew 24:14), though perhaps not in the way envisioned by Jesus. It seems that the Church has fulfilled its mission. We’re all healthy and happy, if not holy, and in possession of its vestiges.

There was a bishop once, Anthony of San Francisco, whose presence tore off, gently, humorously, but insistently, our veils of pretence, false modesty, and smug religion. When he visited, one felt that a king was among us, coming to deliver us the Kingdom by participation and right, even when, no, especially when, he wasn’t wearing his glittering mitre. Interrupting by charism the Divine Liturgy he, overcome by the Spirit, emerged from the iconostasis to cry out, ‘My children, come with us up to Mount Tabor, and see the Lord transfigured!’ Another time, joining us after worship in the catacomb-like nave of an underground sanctuary as we were filing out, he exclaimed, ‘My children, you can do nearly everything that we priests can do! Join us in ministering to God’s people!’ Here was living Orthodoxy, the faith of the fathers. We thought he would live forever to raise our spirits, and so we lived in luxury.

But the ‘unchanging Orthodoxy’ that we are so proud of and bait our hooks with to catch the world into our nets, not into His, imitating not the holy apostles but the pharisaic hypocrites, is only the outward forms, the ‘lessons memorized,’ what we can do without effort, training our bodies not for holiness but for ritual gestures, our ‘tithe of mint and dill and cumin’ (Matthew 23:23), while neglecting ‘the weightier matters.’ And what are these? Yes, it is hard to tell a paralytic to get up and walk. So we ‘forgive sins’—our own. Yes, it is uncomfortable to raise the dead. Maybe they would accuse us, so we ‘let sleeping dogs lie.’ Yes, it must only be a metaphor to say that our faith can move mountains. Even if we had mustard seed faith, it might be safer to not ‘put God to the test.’ What would Father think? We hired him to do our job for us. Quiet! Don’t let the cat out of the bag! He may be a lion, and devour you!

Yes, still the Apostles’ Fast for a few more days. ‘Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.’ Meanwhile, what do we do until the final Divine Act occurs? He has ascended, becoming instantly, always, and everywhere available to each one of us. He has sent us the holy and life-creating Spirit from the Father. All around us, invisibly up borne by the angelic hosts, not only the King of all, but the holy nation of kings and priests that fills all space and time, are laboring by wonderworking intercession, holding open the nets for us to fill them. What nets? What are we to do? Aren’t we fasting, going to services, giving charity? Isn’t our Holy Orthodoxy, that ‘unchanging, ancient faith’ enough? What more can be demanded from us? Not the vestiges, not the historical continuity, not the elaborate liturgy, not the doctrinal precision, not the laudable and praiseworthy do-good-ness, we give to ourselves.

‘But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you as well’ (Matthew 6:33).

The Apostolic Rule: Ephesians

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).

The Apostolic Rule: Galatians

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 we are capable of

Everything that Jesus does is absolutely extraordinary. Whether or not He is God or the Son of God, the question pales into insignificance if we let ourselves look at Him and what He does with eyes unclouded by our mortality and unexpectation. It’s as if he appears on the stage of history to show mankind what we are actually capable of, what we can really accomplish, what we can be. We always want to say ‘No’ when someone expects something of us that we don’t believe we can do, be, or give, and that is almost everything. We live our lives as individuals and as nations in a constant state of fear and failure, in a state of perpetual negation. And so, we create a different world than the one that God creates for us. He gives us everything, and we take nothing from His hands, instead stealing only what is forbidden.

In His most extreme moment, Jesus, an innocent man crucified between two criminals, as He is going to meet death, cries out to God, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!’ This is not the kind of thing we expect a man on death row to think, let alone say. He has nothing more to gain or lose, yet He says this. Who is He asking God to forgive, and who is He to ask? Is He asking that the two thieves that are dying with Him be forgiven? Or the Roman soldiers who stripped and beat Him, nailed Him to the cross, and cast lots for His robe? Or the government officials, prefects and kings, who judged Him? Or the crowd that called for His execution ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ in exchange for the release of a known criminal? Or the religious leaders and the righteous who could not endure His words and deeds?

We don’t dare stand with the Pharisee who challenged Him when He told the paralytic ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ yet inwardly we are just as critical, just as negative, ‘Who can forgive sins but God?’ and so in our own day-to-day lives we execrate Him and call Him a liar by our thoughts and behaviors. We don’t really believe in forgiveness, His or anyone’s, except ritually, going to confession with our pittances of misdemeanors while we treat not only our neighbor, but the whole world, with contempt. If we listen to the words of the Gospel at all, ‘Which is easier, to say to this man, your sins are forgiven, or, take up your mat and walk?’ we hear them as tinseled words to decorate our vanity, and call it ‘piety.’ We never ask ourselves, ‘Who is He asking God to forgive?’ or even, ‘Who is He to ask?’ We know both answers.

But everything that Jesus does is absolutely extraordinary, everything He says. In everything He shows us what we are capable of. He is not God appearing as a human just to show off His miraculous powers. He is a man appearing as God to show us what we are made to be. He is not a figment of our imagination that we haul out on Sabbaths and festal days, to be put away, or even trashed, when our celebrations are over, like pagan, or rock-star, idols. We don’t really believe in the Creation story or in Adam and Eve, neither do we know, nor do we want to know, that Adam is mankind, created by God to be God on earth, and so Jesus, whom we call the ‘second Adam,’ is equally dismissed as just another story. He comes, He says, to make all things new. All things, even us. Renewed in the Image, of ourselves.

Our real selves, not what we have fashioned. What God made us, not what we pretend ourselves to be. Everything that Jesus does He does to show us what we are capable of. We really can heal the sick, give sight to the blind, preach the good news (that is, give hope to) the poor, even raise the dead. Our prayer can move mountains. Our forgiveness can transform the world. We can bring salvation to the earth. ‘Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father’ (John 14:12). Yes, we can even walk on water. We can exceed the myth. We can go beyond the saying, ‘God became man, so that man could become God,’ by actually manifesting, experiencing, living what the words are saying, and that is Truth.

The Apostolic Rule: Corinthians

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

Pray to our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:2

Never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:4

Make up the differences between you, and instead of disagreeing among yourselves, be united in your belief and practice.
1 Corinthians 1:10

Instead of the spirit of the world, we have received the Spirit that comes from God, to teach us to understand the gifts He has given us. Therefore we teach not in the way in which philosophy is taught, but in the way that the Spirit teaches us. We teach spiritual things spiritually.
1 Corinthians 2:12-13

The temple of God is sacred, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 3:17

There must be no passing of premature judgment. Leave that until the Lord comes.
1 Corinthians 4:5

Keep to what is written.
1 Corinthians 4:6

The Kingdom of God is not just words, it is power.
1 Corinthians 4:20

You should not associate with a brother Christian who is leading an immoral life, or is a usurer, or idolatrous, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or is dishonest. You should not even eat a meal with people like that.
1 Corinthians 5:11

How dare one of your members take up a complaint against another in the law courts of the unjust instead of before the saints! As you know, it is the saints who are to judge the world; and if the world is to be judged by you, how can you be unfit to judge trifling cases? Since we are also to judge angels, it follows that we can judge matters of everyday life.
1 Corinthians 6:1-3

You know perfectly well that people who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God: people of immoral lives, idolators, adulterers, catamites, sodomites, thieves, usurers, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers will never inherit the Kingdom of God. These are the sort of people some of you were once, but now you have been washed clean, and sanctified, and justified through the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Keep away from fornication. All the other sins are committed outside the body, but to fornicate is to sin against your own body.
1 Corinthians 6:18

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are not your own property. You have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Let each man have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband must give his wife what she has the right to expect, and so too the wife to the husband. The wife has no rights over her own body; it is the husband who has them. In the same way, the husband has no rights over his own body; the wife has them. Do not refuse each other except by mutual consent, and then only for an agreed time, to leave yourselves free for prayer. Then come together again in case Satan should take advantage of your weakness to tempt you.
1 Corinthians 7:2-5

A wife must not leave her husband, or if she does leave him, she must either remain unmarried or else make it up with her husband. Nor must a husband send his wife away.
1 Corinthians 7:10b-11

If a brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she is content to live with him, he must not send her away; and if a woman has an unbeliever for her husband, and he is content to live with her, she must not leave him. This is because the unbelieving husband is made one with the saints through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made one with the saints through her husband. However, if the unbelieving partner does not consent, they may separate. In these circumstances, the brother or sister is not tied. God has called you to a life of peace. If you are a wife, it may be your part to save your husband. If a husband, it may be your part to save your wife.
1 Corinthians 7:12-16

What each one has is what the Lord has given him, and he should continue as he was when God’s call reached him.
1 Corinthians 7:17

Let everyone stay as he was at the time of his call. If, when you were called, you were a slave, do not let this bother you. But if you should have the chance of being free, accept it.
1 Corinthians 7:20-21

You have all been bought and paid for. Do not be slaves of other men.
1 Corinthians 7:23

We all have knowledge. Yes, that is so, but knowledge gives self-importance. It is love that makes the building grow. A man may imagine that he understands something, but still not understand anything in the way he ought to. But any man who loves God is known by Him.
1 Corinthians 8:1-3

The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall. The trials that you have had to bear are no more than people normally have. You can trust God to not let you be tried beyond your strength, and with any trial He will give you a way out of it and the strength to bear it.
1 Corinthians 10:12-13

For me there are no forbidden things, but not everything does good. True, there are no forbidden things, but it is not everything that helps the building to grow.
1 Corinthians 10:23

Nobody should be looking for his own advantage, but everybody for the other man’s.
1 Corinthians 10:24

Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God. Never do anything offensive to anyone.
1 Corinthians 10:31-32

No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:3b

Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

You are not to be childish in your outlook. You can be babies as far as wickedness is concerned, but mentally you must be adult.
1 Corinthians 14:20

By all means be ambitious to prophesy, do not suppress the gift of tongues, but let everything be done with propriety and in order.
1 Corinthians 14:39-40

The gospel will save you only if you keep believing what was preached to you. Believing anything else will not lead to anything.
1 Corinthians 15:2

Never give in, never admit defeat. Keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that in the Lord you cannot be laboring in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58

Be awake to all the dangers. Stay firm in the faith. Be brave and be strong. Let everything you do be done in love.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14

We are Christ’s incense to God for those who are being saved and for those who are not. For the last, the smell of death that leads to death, for the first the sweet smell of life that leads to life.
2 Corinthians 2:15-16a

We do not go around offering the Word of God for sale, as many other people do. In Christ, we speak as men of sincerity, as envoys of God and in God’s presence.
2 Corinthians 2:17

We with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the Image that we reflect.
2 Corinthians 3:18

The troubles which are soon over, though they weigh little, train us for the carrying of a weight of eternal glory which is out of all proportion to them.
2 Corinthians 4:17

From now onward we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work.
2 Corinthians 5:16-18a

It was God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation. God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and He has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.
2 Corinthians 5:18b-19

We are ambassadors for Christ. It is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s Name is: Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20

For our sake God made the sinless One into sin, so that in Him we might become the goodness of God. As His fellow workers, we beg you not to neglect the grace of God that you have received.
2 Corinthians 5:21-6:1

We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as Christ’s servants. We prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering, in times of hardship and distress. We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness, by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation, by the word of truth and by the power of God.
2 Corinthians 6:3-7a

Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers. Virtue is no companion for crime. Light and darkness have nothing in common. Christ is not the ally of Belial, nor has a believer anything to share with an unbeliever.
2 Corinthians 6:14-15

To suffer in God’s way means changing for the better and leaves no regrets, but to suffer as the world knows suffering brings death.
2 Corinthians 7:10

As long as the readiness is there, a man is acceptable with whatever he can afford. Never mind what is beyond his means. This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves. It is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need. That is how we strike a balance.
2 Corinthians 8:12-14

We live in the flesh, but the muscles that we fight with are not flesh. Our war is not fought with weapons of flesh, yet they are strong enough in God’s cause to demolish fortresses. We demolish sophistries and the arrogance that tries to resist the knowledge of God. Every thought is our prisoner, captured to be brought into obedience to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Examine yourselves to make sure you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Acknowledge that Jesus Christ is really in you.
2 Corinthians 13:5

Try to grow perfect. Help one another. Be united. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
2 Corinthians 13:11

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

The Apostolic Rule: Romans

The teaching of holy apostle Paul…

Preach the obedience of faith to all pagan nations.
Romans 1:5

It is not listening to the Law but keeping it that will make people holy in the sight of God.
Romans 2:13

You must not let sin reign in your mortal bodies or command your obedience to bodily passions. You must not let any part of your body turn into an unholy weapon fighting on the side of sin. You should offer yourselves to God and consider yourselves dead men brought back to life. You should make every part of your body into a weapon fighting on the side of God. Then sin will no longer dominate your life, since you are living by grace and not by law.
Romans 6:12-14

There is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives.
Romans 8:12

Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God. The Spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again. It is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are the children of God. And if we are children we are heirs as well, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, sharing His sufferings so as to share His glory.
Romans 8:14-17

We must be content to hope that we shall be saved—our salvation is not in sight—we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet. It is something we must wait for with patience.
Romans 8:24-25

Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of Him who loved us. Nothing that exists can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39

The Word, that is, the faith that we proclaim, is very near you. It is on your lips and in your heart. If your lips confess that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. By believing from the heart you are made righteous. By confessing with the lips you are saved. Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.
Romans 10:8-13

Think of God’s mercy, and worship Him in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God.
Romans 12:1

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 12:2

All of us, in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other. Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching, then use it for teaching. Let the preachers deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent, and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully.
Romans 12:5-8

Do not let your love be a pretense, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit. If you have hope, this will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying. If any of the saints are in need, you must share with them; and you should make hospitality your special care.
Romans 12:9-13

Bless those who persecute you. Never curse them, bless them.
Romans 12:14

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and be sad with those in sorrow.
Romans 12:15

Treat everyone with equal kindness. Never be condescending, but make real friends with the poor.
Romans 12:16a

Do not allow yourself to become self-satisfied.
Romans 12:16b

Never repay evil with evil, but let everyone see that you are interested only in the highest ideals.
Romans 12:17

Do all that you can to live at peace with everyone.
Romans 12:18

Resist evil and conquer it with good.
Romans 12:21

You must all obey the government authorities.
Romans 13:1

Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations.
Romans 13:8

You know “the time” has come. You must wake up now. Our salvation is even nearer than it was when we were converted. The night is almost over, it will be daylight soon. Let us give up all the things we prefer to do under cover of the dark. Let us arm ourselves and appear in the light.
Romans 13:11-12

Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling and jealousy.
Romans 13:13

Let your armor be the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 13:14a

Forget about satisfying your bodies with all their cravings.
Romans 13:14b

If a person’s faith is not strong enough, welcome him all the same without starting an argument.
Romans 14:1

It is not for you to condemn someone else’s servant. Whether he stands or falls, it is his own master’s business. He will stand, you may be sure, because the Lord has power to make him stand.
Romans 14:4

If one man keeps certain days as holier than others, and another considers all days to be equally holy, each must be left free to hold his own opinion.
Romans 14:5

You should never pass judgment on a brother or treat him with contempt. We shall have to stand before the judgment seat of God.
Romans 14:10

Far from passing judgment on each other, you should make up your mind never to be the cause of your brother tripping or falling.
Romans 14:13

The Kingdom of God does not mean eating or drinking this or that, it means righteousness and peace and joy brought by the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ in this way you will please God and be respected by men. So let us adopt any custom that leads to peace and our mutual improvement. Do not wreck God’s work over a question of food.
Romans 14:17-20

Every act done in bad faith is a sin.
Romans 14:23b

We who are strong have a duty to put up with the qualms of the weak without thinking of ourselves. Each of us should think of his neighbors and help them to become stronger Christians.
Romans 15:1-2

Be tolerant with each other, following the example of Christ Jesus, so that united in mind and voice you may give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:5b-6

Treat each other in the same friendly way as Christ treated you.
Romans 15:7

Be on your guard against anybody who encourages trouble or puts difficulties in the way of the doctrine you have been taught. Avoid them.
Romans 16:17

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

The Apostolic Rule

The holy apostle Paul writes, ‘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). The little manual which follows, entitled The Apostolic Rule, is the product of my first years as an adult Christian, when I was being grounded in the Word of God by reading it constantly every day. My bible was the Jerusalem Bible, first published in English in 1966, the work of the School of Biblical Studies in Jerusalem. I was drawn to this version because it was in modern English and charged with an energy that brought the words to life in a way that I had never experienced before. The use of the name Yahweh in the Old Testament made my contact with the Lord immediate and concrete and, strangely, unreligious. The way that the Old Testament apocryphal books are smoothly integrated into the Jerusalem Bible also appealed to me. Finally, the book of Psalms became my daily prayerbook, translated as they are with poetic rhythm and compelling imagery. Although I sometimes read The New English Bible, the Good News Bible, and The Living Bible, to gain further insight, the Jerusalem Bible continues to speak the Word of God to me with directness and clarity, and it is from this version that I collected the extracts that became The Apostolic Rule.

Speaking of the words of divine scripture, the Word of God declares in Psalm 19, that ‘more desirable than gold, even than the finest gold, His words are sweeter than honey, even than honey that drips from the comb. Thus Your servant is formed by them, observance brings great reward’ (Psalm 19:10-11). And further, in the prophet Isaiah, ‘I have not spoken in secret in some corner of a darkned land! I, the Lord, speak with directness! I express Myself with clarity!’ (Isaiah 45:19).

As I read the apostolic writings, the letters of Paul, of Peter, John, James the brother of the Lord, and Jude, it became clear to me that the rule of Christian life was contained in them. As I studied the epistles over and over, certain verses and passages began to stand out as powerful utterances and expressions of this rule. I copied them out in a little notebook and divided them into ‘chapters’ called by the name of the epistle where they were written, such as ‘The Roman Rule’ from the letter to the Romans. The verses found in Paul’s letters to individuals I grouped under the apostle’s name, as ‘The Pauline Rule,’ even though he also wrote letters to the churches. This is the plan I followed, harvesting powerful living words from every one of the epistles from Romans to Jude.

Now, please notice that I am not calling this manual ‘The Apostolic Rules’ in the plural, because it is not the following of rules that makes a Christian life. The ‘rule’ of Christian life referred to by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians is more like a ruler (or gauge, as we might call it today), a standard against which we compare our life, or perhaps a specific pattern on which we model our life. That seems to be what the apostle is trying to tell us.

The verses and passages that I collected in my notebook were therefore not normally expressed as ‘rules’ but rather in the form of (1) concrete commands, (2) definitions, (3) exhortations, and (4) reasons for behavior. The first four passages in ‘The Roman Rule’ are examples of exactly these forms.

Sometimes a verse is removed from its context because that part of the passage brings out the meaning better than does the whole. It should focus our attention on what is essential and suggest to us a plan of action. No comments clutter the text of the verses presented, because ‘the anointing He gave you teaches you everything’ (1 John 2:27).  It is important to remember that reading a manual like this one is never a substitute for studying the bible itself, in which we will always find the life-giving promises of the Word of God, who says, ‘If you make My word your home, you will indeed be My disciples’ (John 8:31). ‘And My Father will love you, and We shall come to you and make Our home with you’ (John 14:23).

Turning back to Psalm 19, we read, ‘The Law of Yahweh is perfect, new life for the soul; the decree of Yahweh is trustworthy, wisdom for the simple. The precepts of Yahweh are upright, joy for the heart; the commandment of Yahweh is clear, light for the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is pure, lasting for ever; the judgments of Yahweh are true, righteous every one, more desirable than gold, even than the finest gold; His words are sweeter than honey, even than honey that drips from the comb. Thus Your servant is formed by them, observance brings great reward. But who can detect his own failings? Wash out my hidden faults, and from pride preserve Your servant, never let it dominate me. So shall I be above reproach, free from grave sin. May the words of my mouth always find favor, and the whispering of my heart, in Your presence, Yahweh, my Rock, my Redeemer!’ (Psalm 19:7-14).

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. Click HERE to download a PDF of the entire booklet (40 pages) which you can print out.
Click the links below to read each chapter on line.

The Apostolic Rule: 

Romans — Corinthians — Galatians

Ephesians — Philippians — Colossians

Thessalonians — Disciples — Hebrews

Living in Love

Childhood friends

Class photo from my first semester (1B) first grade class.
The names I remember without looking.
Top row: Dawn, Laurie — 2nd row: Dragomir, Seymour, me
3rd row: Maud

Childhood friends. Now that I am sixty-four, have I forgotten them? No, not really. It’s an odd thing about memory, that we often are able to remember names and events from our early years better than we can remember the same from the middle part of our lives, or even from the current time. There are businesses that cater to our nostalgia needs, our need to reconnect, sometimes after whole lifetimes, with people from our past, classmates, for example. I’ve never used their services, but a few years ago, still in my late fifties, I tried to reconnect with some of my old classmates on my own.

Disappointment. That’s what it came to. Not a single childhood friend that I came into contact with was anyone I could relate to now. That seemed very odd, but now I am used to it. If I had stayed and lived my life among those friends instead of disappearing and migrating West, I wouldn’t have had to look them up at all. I might’ve stayed friends with some of them to this very day. A few of those childhood friends, though, and I did remain in touch during our young married lives, in spite of the two thousand miles distance. We even visited each other cross-country once or twice.

But distance doesn’t make the heart grow fonder, at least not in the long run. We miss people a lot at first, but then, as if the other has died, memories fade and emotion bonds are broken. People just drift away from each other. When we do reconnect, sometimes after unshared lifetimes, there is often nothing to say. It’s a little different with relatives, but not much. I reconnected to two of my cousins, the only two that I still knew the locations of, and that was a bit better. Our blood ties make up for everything else—almost. Now, the geographical distance is all that keeps us apart.

It’s funny how free choice and the will of God seem to blend together as life goes on, to the point that one is no longer afraid of making any decision, because we know, in our later years, that God has been faithfully providing for us in spite of ourselves, and that whatever we ‘decide’ is still within His care, and therefore, in His will. No, I’m not saying that if I decide to rob a bank or kill myself that is ‘within His care and His will.’ Of course not. To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere, exactly the place that things like this happen. But no, we walk in His will, by choice, and He more than reciprocates and blesses.

Those childhood friends whose names and faces I remember were God’s providence for that time, even as our family members were and sometimes still are, but there are no worm-holes through time that let us go back, for nostalgia or for company, to ‘continue where we left off.’ It’s a good sign that we’re still moving, moving ‘with the cloud,’ still running, running after Him, being renewed because, in His presence, nothing and no one can stand still, no one can atrophy or die, no decision we ever make do we make alone. He was, He is, He is to come, always and everywhere, now and forever, our true childhood friend.

A good thing

First row only: Mary Magdalene (far left), John, Peter,
Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Judas Iscariot, Thomas (far right)

As if the world hadn’t seen enough mutations of the Message of Jesus Christ or splintering of the Church for the sake of earthly glory, the media community cannot be left out without adding fuel to the fire (yes, that’s where it is all heading, the fire). I had heard of a new film, Son of God, and as I wanted to check it out, I got a copy and watched it—after the first half, forced myself to watch the second half.

It started out in what I thought was a promising way. The opening verses of the Gospel according to John were spoken by the person of John the Evangelist himself, and it became evident that this film was going to be the life or meaning of Christ seen through his eyes. Jumping ahead, at the end of the film there’s even a snippet of Christ appearing to John on Patmos with His ‘final message.’

As I said, the film begins in a promising and dramatic way, showing Christ’s presence in many of the events of the Old Testament, such as the creation of Adam, the call of Abraham, and the story of Moses. It then moves on to a series of disconnected vignettes, into which the entire film is broken, starting with the birth of Jesus to Mary and the visitation by the magi, though only the black magus has an active role.

That was where I first noticed the subtle and gently gradual shifting of the historical account to what the film’s writers and producers must believe is their improvement on the Bible record. It is all done in such a natural way as to evade a notice of political correctness. The violence done to the Gospel in the form of replacing Jesus’ actual words and acts with merely something else caught me by surprise.

It never occurred to me that anyone making a movie about Jesus Christ would dream of taking such liberties, but these people take them with such ease and confidence and even authority, that the viewer, if Biblically illiterate, could have no choice but to accept what is shown in this movie as ‘the Gospel truth.’ But believe me, or see it for yourself, this new film is denatured Gospel at best, at worst, blasphemous nonsense.

Yes, I never thought I would say anything or anyone is blasphemous, not because blasphemy as a category of behavior is impossible, but because God is not harmed or even dishonored by acts of blasphemy. He is far above them. All that blasphemy does is strip the blasphemer of humanity and opens the door to further dehumanization. Meanwhile, God continues to be God, unaffected.

Leaving blasphemy aside, history itself is blasphemed, if the category can be reassigned. Not ignoring history, but rewriting it, a luscious, young Mary Magdalene is now the constant tag-along of the apostles as they traipse after Jesus, the call of Peter reduced to an encounter where Jesus offers him ‘to change your life,’ which once he accepts makes him almost the only visible apostle, irresistibly handsome.

The raising of Lazarus is depicted with perhaps the worst alteration of fact in the entire film. Jesus has the tomb entrance cleared of rubble, He goes inside and proclaims to the dead man ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life…’ and so on, while one of the sisters also in the tomb stands by. After his proclamation, Jesus squats down and buries his face in Lazarus’ thick curly hair and blows. The dead man’s eyes pop open, and he sits up. Jesus, during the whole scene is visibly close to weeping.

The near weeping of Jesus, ostensibly to show how caring and compassionate He was, is another subtle tactic of the film. In almost every scene where He has to say something unpleasant, the ‘Son of God’ looks as if He is overcome with pity or sorrow and about to cry, but He just never does. The overall impression is that Jesus Christ was trying to reform the world in the most pleasant way, and somehow knew it was just going to be impossible.

Almost every vignette of a Gospel event is altered, as if to improve on the original story, and the very few characters that are showcased bear little or no resemblance to the originals that we find in the Bible. Popular misconceptions are reinforced too. The Simon of Cyrene that is forced to help Christ carry the cross is a turban-wearing black West African, not a North African Berber or Greek.

The reason why Christ must be done away with, according to the story as this movie tells it, is that His followers are uncontrollable and might cause a disturbance during the Passover, and Pilate is threatening to close the Temple to the public if this happens, thus ruining the festival. As if he could. His gorgeous wife warns him that she dreamt about Jesus and that he mustn’t condemn him, but he says he has to, or he’ll lose his job.

The mother of Jesus, shown in her mature age, luxuriously long, curly hair framing her strong, feminine features beneath a perfect veil, everything in shades of blue of course, remains fixed in my memory along with Mary Magdalene as they wear identical expressions of dramatic grief during the trial, scourging and crucifixion of Jesus. Lacking any context, the Magdalene walking alone in a rocky waste seems to accidentally discover the empty tomb, and the resurrected Jesus standing outside and looking in, tells her to tell the apostles He is alive.

An attempt is made in the film to cover what its makers must have believed to be the essential points of the Gospel, though in such a way as hardly befits a cheap Sunday School instructional video. The main events are as visible as bumps in a road, the dialogs sometimes as jarring as pot-holes, but the road leads nowhere, and after viewing the film, I got the feeling that I had been cheated out of something.

Every generation needs to have ‘the greatest story ever told’ re-presented in their own way, if not in church, then at least in the media, which as an institution has replaced the Church as a magisterium for many, even for Christians. I understand that Son of God as a film is excerpted from a longer television series that attempts to be a video Bible. If the whole work is as limpid as this, Lord have mercy!

The fact remains, at least in this viewer’s mind, that this film is anything but a presentation of the life of Christ or of the Gospel. Keeping faithful to the Bible and to history, other film makers have provided us with reliable presentations that do what this movie tries to do by abandoning both. The result is boring and predictably unnatural, a disappointment on almost every level. At least, it may drive people back to read the Gospels themselves, and that would be a good thing.

The Author and Finisher of our faith

We are living in a miserable age as far as warfare and heresy (another form of warfare) is concerned, and we find it in many unexpected places, sometimes within the enclosure of Holy Church. It is there where it is most dangerous, because Christians, born and trained to be sheep, when not grounded in the Word of God, can follow, and often do, the voice of hirelings, instead of the voice of the Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ.

That voice can come from the mouth of an ‘authority’ that sets itself up to be worshiped outside the Church, but more often within her. Hence, we see from history, the departure of the popes of Old Rome from Holy Orthodoxy and, outside, the thousands of voices of the mini-popes of false, dysfunctional fundamentalism.

Anyone who sets themselves up against the Holy Church that we know as Orthodox is automatically disqualified as a teaching authority, even when speaking the truth, because of admixture of truth and falsehood. This is easy to recognize. What is difficult is when the admixture occurs within the Church, coming from hierarchs, yes, but in the current age, from unqualified populists, who use fear to corral the sheep into pens of their own making, where superstition and slander replace faith and discernment. They use the name ‘Orthodox’ with as much duplicity as the fundamentalist slavers use the name of ‘Jesus Christ.’ Both these types are, in fact, contemporary Nicolaitans, those whose object is to divide and conquer the people of God, as is prophesied by Christ in His messages to the seven churches of Asia (Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, in their entirety).

At the present moment, Holy Church is being bombarded by the Nicolaitans within, who are trying to divide and conquer us. Their aim is not the conversion of the flock to ‘True Orthodoxy.’ They only want those sheep who will listen to and obey them without reservation, and who will promote themselves as ‘the only connection’ between the believer and Christ-God. As for the rest of us, who cling to the words of Jesus and try to imitate Him and carry out His holy commands, they have already verbally consigned us to the outer darkness.

So, just as the darkness spreads, not only within Holy Church but all around her, we see open prejudice on the rise all around us. The scapegoats, as usual, are the Jews, and anyone who has a mind of their own. Reason has again become the enemy, even though Reason has appeared in human form as Christ, and those who hear Him and obey. Now, I am seeing more and more the rise of an anti-Roman sentiment and prejudice, compounding historical enmity (which those in Christ should abandon and abhor) with pure, malicious slander. The Roman pope is once again being called the Antichrist, or the one who ushers in the Antichrist.

It’s to be expected that ‘fundamentalist’ Christians outside the Church should speak and believe this way. In the dark days of late medieval Europe, Martin Luther and his followers boldly asserted the same. And now, centuries later, the Greeks are taking up the score, adding force to it by remembering historical atrocities and negligences of the popes of former times perpetrated against them. Mark of Ephesos and Photios are dialectically resurrected to bolster their mindless arguments. Mindless, because they ignore present realities, clinging to the past as if the present, and building fortresses on other foundations than on Christ, who is the only foundation of truth.

All this is nonsense. Someday we will have to heed the call of Christ, ‘Lazaros, come out!’ and emerge from our tombs of superstition and dead faith, where we lie in the dark slumber of slander instead of walking in the Light of Christ, following Him alone, and doing the same things we see Him doing. Don’t we believe that Christ is alive and in our midst, now and always, and to the ages of ages?

We are the God-protected City, not ancient Byzantion, that lost Constantinople that people who dwell in fantasy and fanaticism dream of. We are the great Church of Holy Wisdom, not that magnificent structure with floating dome and glittering mosaics that is now the jewel-box of a Godless people. We are the Orthodox, who say ‘I believe’ when Christ asks, ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life. Do you believe this?’ and who have promised to follow Him and no one else, declaring, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’

As for the pope, we do not slander him or his office. He is still the fifth patriarch. His office was stolen by liars and sellers of indulgences and false promises, but before Christ returns, his seat at Old Rome will return to Holy Orthodoxy.

The Antichrist has been with us since the beginning, hidden in various persons and in various institutions, but too weakly to reveal itself (yes, itself, not himself, because the Antichrist is not only ‘instead of Christ’ but also ‘instead of human’) and the Fathers have already warned us that one of the worst Antichrists, if not the Antichrist itself, is the dark force of Islam, which says exactly what John the Evangelist says of it, that Antichrist will deny that Christ has come in the flesh, that God can become a man, which He did and He does in Jesus Christ.

Again, let us abandon our historical tombs and come out into life, following the command of Christ, ‘Lazaros, come out!’ For Christ is alive and in our midst. He is speaking to us now as He has since the beginning. His prayer to the Father, ‘that they all are One, even as You and I are One,’ cannot be opposed by flesh forever. He comes today, as He came once in Galilee, to do what He always does, ‘the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.’

Let us walk with Him, and do what we see Him doing, brethren, and slandering no one, yield ourselves gladly and without reserve, not to the Nicolaitans who call us to hate one another, but to Jesus, ‘the Author and Finisher of our faith.’

Ramadan رمضان

Ramadan 2015 begins Wednesday, June 17
and ends Friday, July 17.

Ramadan (Arabic: رمضان) is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and the month in which Muslims believe the Qur’an was revealed.

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month is spent by Muslims fasting during the daylight hours from dawn to sunset. Muslims believe that the Qur'an was sent down to the lowest heaven during this month, thus being prepared for gradual revelation by the angel Jibra'il (Gabriel) to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Furthermore, Muhammad told his followers that the gates of Heaven would be open all the month and the gates of Hell (Jahannam) would be closed.

This is exactly how religion works. There are laws to be followed. There are acts of self-denial to be performed. There are unprovable—maybe even improbable—beliefs to be accepted, explanations of ‘why things are the way they are.’ Finally, there are promises—in reality a variety of perks, again unprovable—that give the average believer a motivation to follow the laws and perform the ceremonies and customs that will ensure him a better existence in whatever happens after physical death.

It's always about death, and the fear of it. Sometimes it's also about sex. Indeed, sexual instincts and death seem to be intertwined somehow, defying reason by insurmountable paradox. Maybe because sexual activity procreates, keeps living beings from extinction, preserves them from permanent death, as a species. So religion, like the funeral industry, has an inescapable relevance to humans everywhere, and the former usually incorporates the latter in every culture. That's religion for you, pacifying unanswerable need.

Whether or not the Word of God (that unwritten eternal Book, that incarnated in Jesus son of Mary) came down to man's level, or very close to it, by being revealed to Muhammad, Gabriel may know. I don't. To me it seems slightly less credible than what happened in the Incarnation, but both claims must seem like nonsense to the believing Jew. Everyone knows that there is only one YHWH, and therefore only one real religion, the one that was revealed to Moses at Sinai. Even Jesus son of Mary followed it.

Real religion—if there is such a thing—doesn't so much need to be in accord with man's power of reason, as to not offend common sense, which is not always the same thing. Laying down laws and making promises just for their own sake, now that is what we expect religions to do, at least the ones we've had to deal with so far. Adding a good dose of supernatural fantasy is also on the agenda. After all, if there is something or Someone ‘up there,’ they will have to keep our interest. Makers of religions know their stuff.

But I find plenty of assurances of Divine mercy, plenty of revelations of what and Who really exist in the pages of the Bible, starting with the Old Testament. There's nothing old about what I find there, except in the sense of  ‘always being the same from before time was.’ If I had to start with that Book, and no other, I would be at a loss to create a religion for myself or for others. There's just something too real, too immediate, about that Book. Yet people use its text to erect religious towers, fortresses, armies, and banks.

Religion has a certain characteristic to it. It is almost always predictable. It will be rich in stories and legends. It will be colorful, even beautiful and seductive to the senses. It can be expected to mobilise people and employ them in tasks that have no earthly object. It always holds out a better tomorrow or hereafter. I doesn't have to limit itself, though, to the future life. The most pungent religions are those that completely take your life over, and use you for anything from sheep to be fleeced to soldiers to be sacrificed.

Heaven is the goal. Earth is just a waiting room, a school, a place of preparation, a ‘foyer leading into the world to come.’ Yes, I know. I believe some of these things too. No, actually, I believe all of them. Earth is temporary, but I still need to take it seriously. Why? Because it is my chance—possibly my only chance—to acquire a truly higher education. Knowing the curriculum, knowing what those lectures and labs should look like, helps me to stay away from schools that are not only unaccredited, but dangerous.

Well, what is it then? Religion or no religion? I believe in three facts that are unprovable, just as unprovable—and maybe just as improbable—as the stories one hears told of the founders and saints of mankind's religions. These three are, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. People have founded religions on these three, and yet what they found themselves saddled with seems inconsistent, indeed often seems completely unrelated, to these three facts. How can this be? What is belief? Even mine?

Religions have to be maintained, cared for, in order to continue. They have no life in themselves, only what people give them. Just as the idols in a temple have to be washed, dressed and ‘fed’ daily, religions need us. The fact of God's becoming a human being in Jesus of Nazareth, the fact that He lives beyond His historical identity and still moves among us, the fact that He has opened paradise—not some ‘pie in the sky’ magical place where we can be rewarded after a life of unnecessary toil—that transcends religion.

We can recognize the door only when we have tried them all and found which one really opens and is not just a picture of a door. We can distinguish the truth only when we have listened to all the stories and found which one really lives and is not just a fairy tale. We can embark on the way only when we have walked our chosen path long enough to see that it leads nowhere, that it dead ends, and that beside us has been walking He who is the way we sought but could not find. Religion ends at His feet, and relationship begins.

There is no Ramadan, no fasting, no revelations, no religion where we find ourselves when we meet Him, and no paradise except Him who is, and in His presence is peace.