Necessary Rules of Life
19th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Corinthians 11: 31-33; 12:1-9; Luke 6:31-36
A Christian and a non-Christian lived as next-door neighbours. One summer day, the Christian approached his neighbour in the yard and was surprised that he was reading the New Testament and underlining many places with a red pencil.
- What are you doing?
- Oh, - was the answer, - I am reading the words of Jesus Christ here, and every time I see that Christians today do not follow His teachings, I underline those words with a red pencil.
That non-Christian would be able to underline many such places. He could underline many of those directives, which we, Orthodox Christians, do not fulfill either. Here are some examples:
1. Christ commands us to love God and our neighbour with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind - but how do we really love God and our neighbour? (Matthew 22:37)
2. Christ tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness (Mat. 6:33), but many of us seek first not that Kingdom, but the material goods of this world.
3. Christ advises us to overcome prejudice and love our enemies (Mat. 5:44), but what about our love for enemies? We often even hate our friends.
4. We say that we love those who love us. This is good, but it is no Christian virtue. Christ
tells us:
“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” (Luke 6:32)
We willingly do good to those who do good to us, help those who help us, lend to those who lend to us, send gifts (mostly Christmas presents) to those who send to us - and there is nothing wrong with that. But all that is no Christian charity.
Perhaps we should stop here to understand what defines Christ's calls to love one's enemies. There are some who misinterpret, misunderstand them.
We find many places in The Gospel where Jesus Christ spoke very sharply against the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites, whitewashed graves, people with hardened hearts, murderers of prophets (sons, who erect monuments to those whom their fathers killed), called them a genus of vipers. Christ even took a whip and drove money changers out of the temple of God.
Thus, all of this indisputably demonstrates that the Lord, although He called to love enemies, yet, He never loved the evil actions of various enemies-of-God; He revealed to them their unworthy deeds and even expelled from the temple those who despised the temple of God, and at the same time, the name of God.
The Lord commanded:
“To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also.” (Luk. 6:29)
And when the servant of the high priest undeservedly and for no reason struck Jesus on the cheek during the interrogation, Jesus did not turn the other cheek to him, but said:
“If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?” (John 18:23).
Jesus spoke justly, and no one had any justification to beat Him – that is why He defended Himself and rebuked the high priest's servant.
From all of the above, we can conclude that Jesus Christ fought against evil, against the evil deeds of people, tried to eradicate evil, did not condone evil. Christ did not teach to indulge evil; therefore, the so-called human teaching of “non-resistance to evil” is human theorizing, hypothesizing - foreign to Christianity.
Consequently, Christian society should not tolerate criminals, murderers, robbers and all those who commit violence and robbery. So what is it in Christ's actions that affirms the need to show love even to enemies?
Christ forgave the robber, who repented, confessed his guilt and Jesus as Lord, hanging on the cross
(Luk. 23:42-43).Christ forgave his crucifiers, while already hanging on the cross:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luk. 23:34)
The first martyr for the faith of Christ, imitating the Lord, also prayed for his murderers:
“Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” (Acts of the Apostles 7,60)
People learn the hard way that evil must be fought, but enemies who have laid down their arms must be treated with understanding and love. The history of human life has many examples when the victors did not heed Christ's instructions, and then humanity endured and suffered greatly.
Let us recall here at least such well-known events.
In 1918, after the victory over Germany, the Allies forced it to pay a large reparation, and, thereby, created a great hatred among the Germans against these countries. The German people, enduring hardships and humiliation, adopted A. Hitler's slogans. All this led to the terrible World War II.
In 1945, after the victory over the same Germany, the Allies not only did not take reparations from Germany, but rather, also gave it material and financial assistance in order to revive economic life and social livelihood there. Compensation was issued for the destroyed shrines, places of worship. Because of that, more than 30 years after the end of the Second World War, the majority of Germans became sincere allies of former enemies and victors from Western countries.
Therefore, let us also try to imitate our Lord in our attitude towards our enemies--to fight against evil, and to forgive our enemies, especially when they are unaware of their sinful deeds or repent of their sins. Let us also remember that the Lord does not love sinfulness, but loves sinners, has understanding and mercy towards them.
The Apostle Paul provides for us an instruction from God:
“Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.” (Romans 12:17)
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
