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(Rom. 15, 30–33; Matt. 17:24–18:4) The Lord pays the required church tax and all other orders, both church and civil, He fulfilled and taught the apostles so. And the apostles then passed on the same law to all Christians. Only the new spirit of life was accepted; externally, everything remained as it was, except for that which was clearly contrary to the will of God, such as, for example, participation in idolatry sacrifices, etc. Then Christianity took over, supplanted all the previous orders and established its own. One would expect that in this way it would be more convenient for the Christian spirit to develop and strengthen. So it was, but not for everyone. The majority, having become accustomed to the external Christian orders, stopped at them, not caring about the spirit of life. This is how it continues to this day. Of the total number of Christians, someone will turn out to be a Christian in spirit. What about the others? “They bear a name as if they were alive, but behold, they are dead” (Rev. 3:1). When the apostles preached the Gospel, their word chose a part of God from among the entire pagan world: now the Lord, through the same word, chooses his part from among the Christian world. “Let the one who reads understand” (Matthew 24:15), and let him take care to find out for sure whether he is on the part of the Lord, and if he does not find confirmation of this, let him take care to belong to the Lord, for in this alone is salvation. You might be interested in: