Часть вторая вероисправительная (глава 2)

Confidence spread among the Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord would come. Some spoke about this in a prophetic spirit, others referred to a word heard as if from the Apostle; There were also those who pointed to an epistle supposedly written by Saint Paul, in which the same idea was confirmed. Hearing this, the Thessalonians did not bother to verify what they heard by what they personally heard from the Apostle, but immediately, as they heard it, they believed and became confused: some from fear, others from joy, that they would soon see the Lord and gather to Him. The Apostle now writes to them that they should not have been so lost for any reason, verses 1-2, knowing in advance that the coming of the Lord must be preceded by the appearance of the Antichrist, with the circumstances surrounding it, as the Apostle personally told them about this when he was with them, verses 3-5. You know, and hold on to this knowledge, that there is something holding back the appearance of the Antichrist. When this thing that restrains is removed, then the Antichrist will appear, and after him the Lord, to kill him with the spirit of his mouth and destroy all his work - verses 6-8. This is the order of world events, according to God’s intention, according to the plan of His providence for the human race. Here one can see the internal, hidden law that governs them, and the final goal towards which everything goes. By this, the wrong thoughts of the Thessalonians were completely corrected, and their confusion should have been calmed down. But Saint Paul was wise to resolve another related question, which naturally could have arisen regarding the prophecy about the appearance of the Antichrist, and again confuse the calmed brotherhood - namely: if this Antichrist is such a champion of God, then wouldn’t there be any danger from him for us, our very faith and our hope? Wouldn't he destroy us too? The apostle's answer to this possible question is: Don't worry. The man of lawlessness will definitely come armed, according to the work of Satan, with everything that can deceive; but in reality it will deceive and entice only those who “have not received the love of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:10). God will allow the spirit of flattery to operate among these, and they will believe lies, verses 8-12. But you who have believed and loved the truth have nothing to fear. You are chosen to salvation and to receive the glory of the Lord because you have believed, and have been sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, verses 13-14. Just remain faithful to the teaching we have given you, which the Lord has given you, verses 15-17. St. Chrysostom says that St. Paul touches here on “great mysteries.” Beginning his speech about the second coming of the Lord, in his first letter the Apostle wrote: “These things we speak to you by the word of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:15). Here, although he does not say this, everything he said is not his personal view, but is undoubtedly God’s revelation. The apostle writes in a prophetic spirit. In the writings of the apostles, inspired by the Spirit of God, it is only permissible for them to see their personal opinions and advice when they themselves speak about it; when they do not speak, then everything they say must be recognized as Divinely inspired truth. Such is the speech of the Holy Apostle Paul. This remark is caused by some Western heterodoxians. All the thoughts indicated in the proposed brief overview of this chapter are combined under the following points: a) correction of wrong thoughts about the second coming of the Lord and the revelation of the Antichrist, verses 1–8; b) a depiction of the machinations of the Antichrist and an indication of whom he will deceive, 9–12; c) the bright fate of believers, as long as they are faithful to the faith. a) Correction of wrong thoughts about the second coming of the Lord and revelation about the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:1–8) 2Sol. 2:1, 2. We pray, brethren, about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our meeting about Him, that you will not soon strive out of your mind, nor be horrified in spirit, nor in word, nor in the message sent from us, as if the day of the Lord has already come. "We pray." He prays, but through this prayer one can see the reproach. Everything was explained in detail; but then alien speeches came up, and everything was forgotten, they were immediately carried away. The Apostle now says: we ask you not to allow yourself to do this, as a condescending mentor might ask a student who has turned out to be faulty. The Greek ερωτωμεν suggests the following speech: as if we are asking, implying: why was this done? “About the coming of the Lord... and our meeting about Him.” “Oh” - regarding the coming... and the meeting... “The Coming of the Lord” - St. Paul everywhere has His personal arrival from heaven to complete His grace-filled kingdom with the kingdom of glory and pronounce judgment on those who resist the truth. “Our assembly about Him” is the same here as in the first epistle, when all the faithful and saints will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). “About Him” – Greek επ᾿, to Him, near Him. He is the center; those who belong to Him will all be located around Him, each in his own order, and will form a single whole, living by the One Lord, all-blessed and all-bright. The holy Apostle raises such a comforting, bright picture in advance in the minds of the Thessalonians for the sake of the fact that after this he had to talk about the dark image of the Antichrist and his deeds, so as not to confuse them with this latter, but at the same time, in order to inspire that they should not worry about the moments of the appearance of the Lord, but about becoming worthy to meet Him in the air, which he repeated to them at the end of the previous chapter. "Not soon". Not immediately, as soon as you hear the word, not immediately, not without thinking. They had already allowed themselves to become confused. Therefore, the Apostle’s thought is: why was this allowed? He secretly expresses his reproach to them that as soon as they heard, without discerning who was speaking or whether he was telling the truth, they became confused. “Strive from the mind”, move from the point, or foundation, of the mind, lose the mind, get lost. The Greek word is used about excitement from fear, joy, grief. - “Neither be horrified”, from Greek - to be frightened by a sudden knock. Believing that the Lord was about to appear, they were frightened, as if struck by thunder, not knowing what to start and what to take on. "Lower in spirit". This does not mean the spirit of lies, but the spirit that manifested itself in the members of the Church, the spirit of prophecy, or revelation and insight into the mysteries of God. So are all the holy fathers: Chrysostom, Theodoret, Damascene, Ecumenius, Theophylact. In meetings of Christians, I found a spirit in others - they stood up and began speaking with inspiration. This speech was most concerned with the building up of the Church in faith and love; but she could embrace the past and see into the future. There were individuals especially distinguished by their insight into the future. When Saint Paul said about himself that the Spirit everywhere in the Churches says that bonds and suffering await him (Acts 20:23), he meant this prophetic spirit, manifested in the then Churches, purity for the sake of the faith and life of the first believers. Whether anyone spoke in this spirit among the Thessalonians about the coming of the Day of the Lord, it is impossible to say. Perhaps no one said so, and St. Paul, only warning of such a case, says: even if someone speaks to you in a prophetic spirit, do not believe it, so as to stop all possibility of deception. So Saint Chrysostom: “Even if someone with the Spirit of prophecy told you this, do not believe it. For when I was with you, I explained to you everything related to this subject, so you should not change your thoughts regarding what you have been definitely taught.” From the fact that the message, as if written by the Apostle, and the word, as if spoken by him, were actually presented in confirmation of the thought of the coming of the Day of the Lord, one could probably conclude that there were indeed presentations of such suggestions of the prophetic spirit. But the obviousness that while the “word” and “message” here seem to belong to St. Paul, the saying “low in spirit” cannot in any way refer to him, significantly weakens this probability, forcing us to see a special shade in the meaning of this saying. The Apostle wanted to express, as it were, the following thought: not only when my supposed word and my supposed message are presented to you (falsely), do not believe it, but if someone known among you as a prophet really began to teach this, do not accept his speeches. This is similar in meaning to the words of the Apostle to the Galatians: “like an angel from heaven” (Gal. 1:8). If anyone wants to accept that the Thessalonians actually heard the suggestions of those who spoke in the prophetic spirit, then one must then mean: “as if” - as if in the prophetic spirit, and not really in the prophetic spirit: for this real spirit is not false. Saint Damascus writes: “Let no one terrify you, not even the one who “appears” to speak in the spirit of revelation.” - Theodoret expresses himself more sharply: “If they pretend to be soothsayers and prophets, we do not order them to believe.” And this could happen without much malicious intent. Reflecting on the fact that the day of the Lord will not come with discretion, and having confirmed the decision to wait, according to the word of the Lord, every hour for His appearance, another could move to the conclusion that it really is already so: the day will come, and then, inspired by this thought, speak a word about it in the assembly. Such a one could seem to be speaking in the spirit, while he was speaking from himself. Not all inspired speech is from the Spirit. So that believers would not be in danger of being mistaken on this matter, the gift of reasoning of spirits abided in the Church. “Lower in words, lower in message.” “The Word” - here, others believe, is the word of the Lord Himself, which has come down according to tradition, or His word, written in the Gospel (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). But it is obvious that by word here we must understand the word that came from the Apostle Paul, like the epistle, only those that were falsely attributed to him, as the words show: “like from us.” The Apostle presents his word and message below, in verse 15, as the only source of God's revelation for the Thessalonians. And now, with false thoughts about the coming of the day of the Lord, some said: the Apostle himself said so; others: so it is written in his message. Or they said - one: I heard; and the other: na, - that’s the message. The words: “sent” are not in the Greek text, but only: “like from us.” Why does almost everyone attribute this phrase not only to the message, but also to the “word”. There are those who classify it as “spirit,” but this confuses and obscures the speech. “As if it had already arrived”, from Greek: as if it had already arrived, “the day of the Lord”, the last day, the day of the final decision on the fate of everyone. This is all the wrongness in the opinions of the Thessalonians. One must always wait for the coming of the Lord, according to the commandment of the Lord Himself; but the moment of coming should not be determined, because no one can know it except God. The Thessalonians determined, and thereby sinned, arrogating to themselves the right of God. The Apostle admonishes them, saying, as it were: you cannot decide this way, and you do not do this, no matter how anyone convinces you to do so. It is not clear that there were any malicious spreaders of lies, otherwise the word of the Apostle would have been stronger and more definite. That thought could have spread as if by chance. Someone said in the congregation: The Lord is coming! Another confirmed: yes, and the Apostle seemed to say so; the third added: yes, and it is written so in the message, or: there is also a message about that. And the talk went everywhere and threw everyone into confusion. It didn’t occur to anyone to discuss the matter. The Apostle’s word about the suddenness of the Lord’s appearance seemed to justify the conclusion that it was right there, at the door! Ecumenius suggests that they were embarrassed out of ignorance and fearfulness. 2Sol. 2:3–5. Let no one deceive you in any way: for if the apostasy does not come first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, the adversary, and exalt himself more than any spoken god, or venerator, as if he should sit in the Church of God like a god, showing himself that there is a God. Don’t you remember that he is still alive among you, saying these things to you? “Yes, no one” - either expresses his desire to them, or gives a warning: watch, beware, or directly commands not to listen to anyone. - “Delighted.” They have already succumbed to temptation. Now, having corrected their way of thinking, he says that in the future they should hold themselves firmly in the right way of thinking, without succumbing to deception. “Not in any single image.” Not in any of the ways shown and exposed, or in any other way. “In this way he warned them on all sides against error” (Chrysostom). With this one saying he “rejected all forms of seduction” (Theodoret). “If ...” For if “the retreat does not come...” What should follow from this is not said. This must be completed by the reader himself, and it is completed by itself, that is, if the apostasy does not come first, the day of the Lord will not come. Ecumenius writes: “Behind these words we must understand: there will be no coming of the Lord.” Why did the Apostle omit such words? – Not because, having started talking about the properties of the Antichrist, I forgot; but because he decided to use the usual figure of silence, or passing, as can be seen from the fifth verse. “Don’t you remember?..” said the Apostle: if apostasy and a man of lawlessness, such and such, do not come first... And perhaps something like that should be added; but he stops speaking and says, as it were: why write so much about this? Remember what was said... Having remembered what was said, they should have brought to mind the fact that until this man of lawlessness appears, the Lord will not come “Here he reveals to them, and through them to us, the greatest sign of the coming of the Lord” (Theodoret). "Retreat will not come." The word “retreat”, one, without explanation, from what and what, does not give a specific concept. Therefore, the question naturally arises: what does the Apostle mean here? – The ancient commentators all believe that “apostasy” is used here instead of “apostate” and means the Antichrist himself. Saint Chrysostom writes: “Here he speaks of the Antichrist and reveals great secrets. What is a retreat? – He calls the Antichrist himself apostasy, since he has the power to destroy many and lead to apostasy: “as if he could deceive, as it is said, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). Theodoret did the same: “The Apostle called the Antichrist himself apostasy, giving him this name because of his deeds, because he would try to bring everyone to apostasy from the truth.” So are all the others; only Ecumenius then adds conjecturally: “Or does he call the departure from God, the deed itself (and not the person) apostasy.” Heterodox Western interpreters do not mean a person, but a special phenomenon in the life of mankind - not everyone, however, is the same thing. Closer, of course, to the truth are those who, like Ecumenium, understand the apostasy from God, from faith and truth, which is mentioned in other places of Scripture. Since this word is not explained here by any additional word, its meaning should be determined by the flow of speech. The words that follow: “the man of lawlessness exalts himself more than any god” and so on, make it clear that the apostasy will be of the same kind, it will take place, that is, in the religious and moral sphere. To see, therefore, in this retreat something political, for example the revolt of the Jews or the fall of the Western Roman Empire, is to evade what St. Paul wanted to say. The apostasy of the pope and his people from the true Church, and then of Luther and Calvin an even deeper falling away from the truth, through the falling away from the papal apostate Church, although they took place in the religious sphere, but just as in the Apostle the appearance of the Antichrist is closely connected with the apostasy, but he does not exist, then these events should not be understood by it. The Apostle is obviously talking about the retreat that will take place in the last days, before the second coming of the Lord. He mentions this in other messages. In his first letter to Saint Timothy, he writes: “But the Spirit speaks clearly, that in the last times some will depart from the faith, heeding spiritual flattery and the teaching of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). This seems to be the case with him (2 Tim. 3:1); and St. Peter (2 Pet. 3:3). Saint Jude testifies that all the Apostles spoke about this in the same way: “Remember the words spoken before by the Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ: I told you beforehand, that in the last time there will be scoffers, walking after their own lusts and being ungodly. These are things that separate themselves from the unity of the faith...” (Jude 1:17-19). And the Lord Himself predicted that at the end of the world “many false prophets will arise and deceive many; and because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will cease” (Matthew 24:11, 12), so that when He comes, “will faith be found on earth?” (Luke 18:8). Based on these certificates, a very disappointing picture of the moral and religious state of people in recent times is drawn in one’s head. The Gospel will be known to everyone. But one part will remain in disbelief, the other - the largest - will be heretical, not following the God-given teaching, but building its own faith, with its own invention, although on the basis of the words of Scripture. There will be no number for these self-invented beliefs. The Pope started them, Luther and Calvin continued his work; The latter, who based their personal comprehension of faith from Scripture alone, gave a strong impetus to the inventions of faith. There are already a lot of them, and there will be even more. Every kingdom has its own confession, and then every region, and then every city, and in the end, perhaps, every head has its own confession. Where they build faith for themselves, and do not accept God’s, it is impossible to be otherwise. And all such will take upon themselves the name of Christians. There will be a part containing the true faith, as it was betrayed by the holy Apostles and preserved in the Orthodox Church; but even of these, a considerable part will be only true believers in name, but in their hearts they will not have the order that is required by faith, having loved the present age. This is how wide the area of ​​retreat is expected to be. Although the Christian name will be heard everywhere, and churches and church ranks will be visible everywhere, all this is only an appearance, but inside the retreat is true. On this soil the Antichrist will be born and will grow in the same spirit of appearances without the substance of the matter. Then, having given himself over to Satan, he will clearly apostatize from the faith and, armed with his seductive machinations, he will entice everyone who does not embrace Christianity in truth to an obvious apostasy from Christ the Lord, forcing himself to be considered God. The chosen ones will not be carried away, but he will have an attempt to deceive them too, if possible. To prevent this from happening, those evil days will end. The Lord will appear and will abolish the Antichrist and all his work by the appearance of His coming. This is what, one must assume, retreat the Apostle means! It is definitely a deed, a fact, and not a person, but one that is in close connection with the person, with the man of lawlessness and the son of perdition. This will be a retreat into which the main apostate, the Antichrist, will be drawn. The retreat of people into false faiths and into non-Christian attitudes of the heart will prepare the ground for the degeneration of the Antichrist and the arena for his action. But it is not this retreat, of course, but the one that the Antichrist will bring about. He, having appeared and strengthened, will complete the internal retreat with that visible retreat. This will be a loud retreat, the only one completely worthy of such a name, which is why it stands with the Apostle with a certain member. That is why, perhaps, it is not explained by him with some other additional word - as Julian was later called an apostate, without explaining why. Thus, in the words of the Apostle: “Unless a falling away comes first, and the man of lawlessness appears,” not two periods are meant, but one last time, in which both will take place. The Holy Fathers expressed this, meaning by apostasy an apostate - the Antichrist, who has to cause a general apostasy. The Apostle Paul himself makes the retreat dependent on it, as can be seen from verse 9 ff., and Saint John the Theologian in the Apocalypse (Apocalypse 13:4) ff. Heterodox Western interpreters retreated from the thought of St. Paul, meaning here a preparatory retreat. “A man of lawlessness” is pre-lawless, imbued with lawlessness, the essence of which is lawlessness. He will be born lawless, will live lawlessly, committing lawlessness and expanding lawlessness everywhere, and will perish in lawlessness. It will be the complete realization of lawlessness, and there will be nothing in it but lawlessness. Not only fighting against God will distinguish him, although it will be most obvious, but every sin. “He is called a man of lawlessness because he will commit thousands of iniquities and lead others to commit them” (Chrysostom). “And he himself will sin many things, and he will lead many others into many sins” (Ecumenius). But he will be a man, like anyone else, consisting of soul and body, only a complete instrument of Satan. Not Satan in the form of a man, and not the incarnation of Satan, but a man in whom Satan will live and act through him as his all-obedient instrument. Saint Chrysostom asks: “Who will he be? Is it really Satan? And he answers: “No, but there is a certain person who will receive all his power (energy).” The same is true for Ecumenius: “The Antichrist will not be Satan, but a man possessed and acted by Satan (satanized). He will be some kind of Jew, skilled in magic and the preparation of spices.” “Son of Perdition” is pernicious, having arbitrarily given himself up to destruction and going into it with the knowledge that he will perish. We have phrases similar to this: a lost person, or a desperate one. Such was Judas (John 17:12); such is this beast from the abyss, which after fighting God will go to destruction (Apoc. 17:8–11). The phrase “son of perdition” can also mean extreme corruption, but this in relation to the Antichrist is already said in the word “man of lawlessness”; here the pitiful end of it is already indicated. But not only he himself will perish, but he will lead many others into destruction. He will entice them to follow his own will and teaching, and thereby destroy them, as it says below (verse 12). He will find pleasure in drawing others into his destructive path; All his concern will be about how to destroy more people. “He is called the son of perdition because he himself will perish” (Chrysostom); “He himself will perish, and he will plunge others into destruction” (Ecumenius); or “will serve as a wine of destruction for them” (Theodoret). "Enemy". It is not specified who or what he will be opposed to. This can be determined by the following words and the entire flow of speech. From them it is clear that he will be an opponent of God and Christ the Lord. It is possible: an opponent of all truth, and especially Christian truth, and, therefore, the salvation of the human race; but it's the same thing. Saint Chrysostom calls him - αντιθεος - the adversary of God; Saint John the Theologian calls him the Antichrist (1 John 2:18, 22, 4:3; 2 John 1:7). ' Αντιθεος can also mean a substitute for God, that is, putting himself in place of God, just as antichrist can also mean putting himself in place of Christ. The following words of the Apostle justify this. He will be in everything an opponent of God and Christ, everything Divine and Christian, in order to put them in their place, or to force himself to honor God and Christ. Here are the words of Saint Chrysostom: “He will be some kind of opponent of God αντιθεος τις - he will reject all gods and order to worship himself instead of God.” Theodoret is more extensive: “The Destroyer of men (Satan) imitates the incarnation of God and our Savior; and just as the Lord, having assumed human nature, accomplished our salvation, so he, having chosen a person capable of absorbing all his effectiveness, will attempt to deceive all people with him, calling himself Christ and God, exposing the falsity of the so-called gods, whom he himself supported in the past centuries.” “Be exalted above every spoken god or worship.” Writing to the Corinthians, Paul used the word: “Glagolemia bozi”, in the sense that they are called gods, but they are not gods. There he had to expose the truth that “there is no one God, only one” - that “to us there is one God the Father, of whom all things are unworthy, and we are with Him, and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by Him are all things, and we by Him” (1 Cor. 8:4-6). Here the Apostle has a different goal. He wants to show not the truth of the one God against all false gods, but the spirit of exaltation of the antifairy and antichrist over everything that is revered by god. Therefore, the “verbal god” here is every being that at that time people will honor as god. Just as at that time there will be true worshipers of the one God worshiped in the Trinity, then He too is understood under the same concept. The Antichrist will rise above all this, making it clear, of course, that every revered god is nothing compared to him and that he alone should be honored as God. The Apostle could have borrowed these sayings from the prophet Daniel, who writes: “he will exalt himself and be magnified above every god, and he will speak grievously against the God of gods... And he does not understand about all the gods of his fathers (he will not pay attention to them)... and about every god he does not understand (he will not want to know him), but he will be magnified above all others” (Dan. 11:36, 37). “Revere” is an object of reverent religious honor, an object either divinely revered, or revered for God’s sake, that is, either a deity, or a church, sacred things and actions, all included in the rite of external veneration. In the first sense, “honor” will be the same as “verbal god”. The Apostle says, as it were: “exalt yourself more than any spoken god,” or, what is the same, “honor.” In the second, a new line of exaltation is given, that the antifairy and antichrist will consider any form of worship of God that he finds among people unworthy, he will despise them all, reject them, and finally create his own new one: for he will present himself as a god, and God cannot exist without worship of God. The first thought is more appropriate here, but you don’t have to shy away from the second either; for the fact that he will sit in the church as a god is already part of the order of worship of God, as it seems, the main, imprecise one, according to which everything else will be established; than will replace any other worship of God. “Like he should sit in the church of God, like God.” The church here is a church, a building. What kind of church is this? Here are the answers of the ancient interpreters, St. Chrysostom: “He will sit in the church of God, not only in Jerusalem, but in churches everywhere.” Theodoret: “The Church of God” the Apostle calls the church in which the Antichrist will seize the presidency, attempting to pass himself off as God.” Theophylact: “He will sit in the church, not in Jerusalem itself, but simply in the churches of God and in every church of God.” There will be somewhere the central place of action of the Antichrist, and there will, of course, be a certain moment at which he will reveal himself as such. The main church of that place is what the Apostle means. In this church he will sit as a god; and then he will sit in this meaning in any other church that he meets personally. Or, perhaps, he will personally sit in one church, but in others he will witness his sitting in some other way. The Apocalypse speaks of an animal image. Isn't it going to be placed in churches everywhere? It goes without saying that if he makes a widespread retreat from Christianity, he will take away the churches with the Christians. Since it will be inappropriate for them to continue the Christian system and rank after this, they will introduce something new, according to the spirit of the new god. And here the first place will be taken by what the sitting of the Antichrist in the church will mean. Whatever place he himself comes to, there he himself will personally sit as a god. In every possible way, the words of the Apostle predict a fact, and do not express an idea. - Therefore, it is inappropriate for others to think that sitting in the church here means that the Antichrist will declare himself a god, and everyone will recognize him as such. “To one who shows himself that God exists.” He will surround himself with such pomp in the church, he will give himself such an atmosphere through ghostly signs that all those who come to him will see in this manifestation as if God, just as Herod once, having put on the royal robe and sitting on the judgment before the people, seemed to the latter something unusual, so that it seemed as if his voice was not human, but divine (Acts. 12:21, 22) – Saint Chrysostom says: “He will try to show himself as a god; for he will do great things and show great signs.” Ecumenius: “He will use all sorts of attempts - to show through deeds, signs and wonders that he is a god.” “Do you not remember that he was still alive among you, saying these things to you?” The Apostle interrupted his speech, as has already been noted, and, without saying that until all this happens, the Lord will not come, he draws the attention of the Thessalonians to what he personally told them, and allows them to complete the unfinished speech themselves. “These are the verbs” - he spoke about this, about these circumstances that precede the coming of the Lord. He spoke, but they forgot: this is a reproach and a lesson to value the word coming from God-inspired lips. They forgot, or perhaps misinterpreted, being confused by the spread of false speeches and confusing the concepts of the hourly wait for the Lord with the decisive approach of the Day of the Lord. So, Saint Paul, in everything mentioned about the appearance of the Antichrist, did not say anything new. He explained all this in his first sermon. Consequently, the teaching about the end of the world with the circumstances preceding and following it, that is, the talk about the second coming of Christ, judgment, heaven and hell, formed an integral part of the original gospel and the urgent subject of the first belief. Consequently, one must no longer treat these subjects lightly and, while maintaining other members of the faith, allow oneself to build one’s own personal views on this, in addition to the teachings taught by the Apostles and preserved by the Church. Let us note in passing that nowhere is the Antichrist spoken of with such certainty as here. But if there had not been any confusion among the Thessalonians, Saint Paul would not have written about this, being content with his personal speech to the Thessalonians and believing that they well and correctly remembered what was said to him. If now the word of the Apostle about the Antichrist came to us not in Scripture, but through tradition from the Thessalonians, the word is truly apostolic and inspired by God, and we would contain this teaching according to this tradition alone; With what profound importance would those who do not accept traditions—heterodox—stand against us, denouncing our belief in vague rumors of tradition, as they are in the habit of expressing themselves? They have already managed to guess something from their intelligence here. Saint Paul here only speaks with such certainty, but in other epistles he no longer mentions this. Consequently, they say, the Apostle changed the manner of the announcement of the first sermon and refrained from speaking later about the circumstances of the second coming. In fact, all that follows from this is that the Apostle no longer wrote with such certainty, although he mentioned it in many places; I didn’t write because I explained everything in detail in the first sermon, remembering the possibility of deviating from the truth, like the Thessalonians, and thereby preventing error, and therefore a reason to write about it. 2Sol. 2:6. And now the restraining message is that it will appear to him (the Antichrist) in due time.” “And now,” others say: you know that now, at the present time, prevents the Antichrist from appearing; and others like this: now you know what is holding him back. What stands for the first is that verse 7 says something similar to this: “hold it now,” and moreover, it seems simpler and clearer; for the second - the structure of speech in the Greek text, according to which it is impossible to translate this passage otherwise than: “now you know.” Whoever accepts this or that combination, the main idea of ​​the text remains the same, because the power of speech does not lie in this. Our Slavic and Russian translation keeps the second translation: “now you know.” Now, that is, having remembered what was said personally and taking into account what was written before this, “you know.” It’s as if the Holy Apostle is silent here. Having allowed the Thessalonians to understand both what was just written down and what was personally interpreted, he draws a conclusion from this: and now you know what is holding him back; and from here there is an easy transition to the main subject of this part of the message: and what holds it back also serves as the reason that the Lord delays His appearance. With this alone he dispelled all their bewilderment. “Holding” – “interfering, hindering” (Ecumenius). “What is this that is holding him back or preventing him from appearing?” (Chrysostom). The question is not superfluous. This saying contains the main idea of ​​the Apostle (together with another: the mystery of lawlessness is already in effect). But meanwhile, it alone does not provide a definite concept and opens up a vast field for guesswork. It is safest for us to adhere to our father's opinions. Let us present them and draw a general conclusion from them. Saint Chrysostom writes: “Some believe that this should mean “the grace of the Holy Spirit,” while others should mean “the Roman state.” Theodorit, Ecumenius and Theophylact repeat the same thing, although some of them suggest other opinions. So Theodoret writes: “By holding back, some mean the Roman kingdom, and others the grace of the Spirit, that is, the Antichrist will not come as long as the grace of the Spirit remains.” And below: “I recognize as true what others claim. It is pleasing to God that the Antichrist should appear at the time of the end (of the world). Therefore, God's decree does not allow him to appear now. But I believe that this saying also contains another meaning. since the Divine Apostle knew what the Lord said, that the Gospel should be preached to all nations, and then death (Matthew 24:14), but he also saw that service to idols still prevailed; then, following the Master’s teaching, he said that first the power of superstition will be crushed and the saving sermon will shine everywhere, and then the opponent of the truth will appear.” Photius from the Ecumenium: “He will appear in due time, that is, when the time determined for him and by God, allowed, or deigned, comes.” Sevier from the same Ecumenium: “The Holy Spirit holds back and does not allow the lawless to appear. When this One, due to the increase of evil in people, withdraws and retreats, then the lawless one will have the freedom to open up and come out into the open - there will be no one to interfere.” Anyone can easily draw a conclusion from the above opinions: when the Gospel passes through all the nations living on earth, and selects from among them all those who are capable of accepting it, and for this purpose to be sanctified and reborn by the grace of the Holy Spirit, then there will be no longer any reason for the present order of things to remain, the end of the world will come, or the last days, in which the Lord has determined to come again to create judgment on all those living on earth, in order to bring some into the kingdom of His glory, and consign others to bitterness. the fate they have chosen. This coming of the Lord, according to the Apostle, will be preceded by the appearance of the Antichrist, in which God will allow evil to be revealed in all its breadth and strength, so that those who are its parts will reveal themselves and expose themselves. Thus, after this or at the same time as the human race has already given up all of God and there is nothing more to expect from them, and not all of God will appear, having cast off their disguise; then the harvest will be ready. The Lord will send the harvesters - and then the end of everything. Just as the ripening of the harvest has its own specific period, so these last phenomena have their own, God-determined time. Both good and evil are already seeded, developing, growing. Both will ripen in due time. It cannot be earlier than that certain date. Now, as to the question why the harvesters are not in the field, the direct answer is that the time has not yet come, the harvest is not ready; So to the question: why are those hoped-for world events not visible, the direct answer is: the time determined by God for their manifestation has not yet come. But this also includes the appearance of the Antichrist. Therefore, he is not for the same reason. And that's what's holding him back. God's determination, as said by blessed Theodoret and behind him by blessed Photius, which alone brings events to the stage of the world or pushes them back, not to please anyone, but according to its own plan of world government, incomprehensible to us. God was pleased to reveal some of the goals of the world's government to us in His word. Applying them to our subject, we can also see in them what “restrains” the Antichrist. The world stands so that the power of salvation, invested by the Lord in our race, like leaven in dough, will do its work. The power of salvation is the Divine Word and grace, acceptable by faith and put into practice by selfless zeal for pleasing God. The Word of God walks across the earth, awakens those who have fallen asleep and leads them to sources of grace - and they, having been reborn, become agents of their own salvation for the glory of the Lord, who has arranged the salvation of all. This kind of phenomenon is everywhere - both among the infidels, and among the erring, and among the true believers; for even those who are called are not all chosen, just as not all the fish that fall into the deep are fit for the table. To these born again, “who were not born of blood, nor of the lust of the flesh, nor of the lust of men, but were born of God... given the region to be children of God” (John 1:12, 13). It is from them that the Lord builds His spiritual kingdom. They are material prepared on earth for heaven by the Word of God and grace, when free will is given to them. When these forces have taken out all the godly material from the earth and the kingdom of God has been fully established, then the salvation of the Lord will complete its work and there will be no need for the present order of things to remain. The world stands because not everyone who is ready to enter the kingdom of Christ has yet entered it, or not as many have entered as needed. “And other sheep are imam,” said the Lord, “which are not of this fold: these also must be brought unto Me... and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16). When this is accomplished, then it is the end; then the appearance of the Antichrist. Hence the phenomenon that holds him back will be that the power of salvation, invested by the Lord in our race, has not yet fully completed its work. Her continued action holds him back. If it stops working, then he will come out on Wednesday. Having decomposed this general thing into the parts that make it up, we get: what prevents the Antichrist from appearing is that the Gospel has not yet been heard by everyone and not everyone has accepted it, and that the grace of the Holy Spirit still abides and is still working in the human race. – Of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, as we have seen, some put forward one side, others the other side of the force acting for our salvation, holding back the appearance of the Antichrist. But this is the same as if each of them indicated both, for they are inseparable. Our interpreters, by the way, also considered the Roman kingdom to be the force restraining the Antichrist. In their time, when the Roman kingdom still existed, this could be indicated based on the prophecy of Daniel. In our time, any weight can be given to such a thought only in this case, if by the Roman kingdom we mean royal power in general - and this is in this way: the royal power, having in its hands the means of restraining popular movements and adhering to Christian principles itself, will not allow the people to evade them, will restrain it. Since the Antichrist’s main goal will be to distract everyone from Christ, he will not appear while the royal power is in force. She will not allow him to turn around, will prevent him from acting in his spirit. This is what “holds” is. When the tsarist power falls, and the peoples everywhere begin self-government (republics, democracies); then the Antichrist will have room to act. It will not be difficult for Satan to prepare votes in favor of the renunciation of Christ, as experience showed during the French Revolution. There will be no one to say: veto is imperious. They will not even listen to a humble declaration of faith. So, when such orders are established everywhere that are favorable to the revelation of Antichrist’s aspirations, then the Antichrist will appear. Until that time he will wait and hold out. Such thoughts are suggested by the words of Saint Chrysostom, who at one time represented royal power under the guise of the Roman state. “When, he says, the existence of the Roman state (that is, royal power) ceases, then the Antichrist will come. Because as long as this state (this royal power) is feared, no one will soon submit to the Antichrist; but after it is destroyed (this power will cease), anarchy will be established - and he will rush to steal all both human and divine power.” One could reasonably argue that the people themselves will guard their faith. But, as has already been said before, it is difficult to allow faith to grow more and more in strength over time. The bright depictions of Christianity in the future by some writers are pleasant to meet, but there is nothing to justify. The grace-filled Kingdom of Christ is indeed expanding, growing, and becoming fuller; but not on earth - visible, but in heaven - invisibly, from persons, here and here, in earthly kingdoms, prepared there by the saving power of Christ. On earth, the reign of unbelief and evil is predicted. It is visible and expanding; and when it has already greatly prevailed, then the matter will only be at the beginning. Just give someone an influential example or a strong voice, and apostasy from the faith will begin to take place. This push will be given by the Antichrist. From this we can assume that what holds back the Antichrist is also the fact that there is still no proper preparation in people to accept him; Unbelief and wickedness have not yet taken over, there is still a lot of faith and goodness in the human race. After everything that has been said, the words are self-explanatory: “the hedgehog will appear to him in his own time.” “Appear” not to the Lord and not to apostasy, but to the man of lawlessness - the Antichrist. “His time” is not what he would like to choose, but what is assigned to him by Divine Providence. He will not appear against the will of God. In God’s plans for world governance, both he and his preparation, and the consequences of that are included. Not because God wants such evil for people, but because people will bring themselves to this. God postponed this moment to the last possible opportunity, waiting to see if anyone else would appear who wanted to turn to Him and serve Him. When there is no one left to wait for, the Lord will accept the holding hand, evil will spill out, and the Antichrist will appear. God gave freedom and does not want to take it away, but always surrounds it with such instructions that, by listening, it can choose a good direction. But he doesn’t force her, he waits for her to choose the good herself. If she chooses evil, it is her own fault. This, however, does not violate God’s good intentions. The Lord will take all that is His and will not suffer any loss due to the deviation of many. And they will get theirs: they loved destruction, and it will come upon them. 2Sol. 2:7. The mystery of lawlessness is already happening, but keep it now until Wednesday. Lawlessness and sin have already acted in the human race since the time of Adam’s crime, and although it is not entirely clear in its origin, and especially in the power of seducing people, everyone has already experienced it and learned how great it is. Therefore, we must assume that by the word “mystery of iniquity” the Apostle means something special. Satan has his own depths (Apoc. 2:24), his secret plans and plans, all in the Satanic Spirit. His harmful actions are visible, but his distant goals are hidden. The Apostle seems to be hinting: what Satan had hitherto been striving for was clear, it had already been revealed. What he is up to now remains to be seen. The secret is that his plans have not yet been revealed. Before he acted this way, now he acted differently, but how? – not yet visible. He began to act differently, because God also acted differently on the human race in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before the coming of Christ, he had already used how to lead people astray, and now, seeing how the cross of Christ was pressing him from everywhere, he had only just begun his counter-intricacies. If we take into account the “mystery of piety,” which the same Apostle speaks of in another place, then by contrast we can discover what the mystery of lawlessness is. The secret of piety in the incarnation of God: “God appeared in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16) - that Jesus, the spoken Christ, is God the Word, who took upon Himself human nature. Belief in this destroys the kingdom of satanic sin. The mystery of lawlessness, invented by Satan, will be Satan’s trick to undermine and pervert this faith. For this purpose, he kept the pagans in their charms in the face of Christianity, presenting to them Christ from the most humiliated side, as crucified on the cross. In the tales of martyrs, this was always the first objection and was against faith and the denunciation of believers by the pagan mind. And in those who, seeing in Christ not an ordinary person, turned to Him, he tried in every possible way to obscure and distort the mystery of the incarnation of God the Word in Him. This is what he has already begun to produce in the Judaizing Christians, in the Ebionites, and Docetes. And after that he did not stop, but in every century he invented a new plot to seduce believers and weaken, or pervert, their faith in the Incarnation. At present, in the West there is an abyss of anti-Christ fighters, and all of them, no matter how different in their private views, agree on one thing - unbelief in the incarnation of God the Word in Christ Jesus. This evil will grow, and the Son of Man, having come, will hardly find faith on earth (Luke 18:8). This is the kind of mystery that will then be revealed and come to light!.. The mystery of lawlessness, of course, presupposes moral corruption, and its predominance in recent times is presented in the Apocalypse under the guise of a great fornicator’s wife, who has the inscription on her forehead: “mystery” (Apocalypse 17:5); but Christians have moral depravity on the outside, and on the inside is unbelief in the Lord. Through moral corruption they are led to unbelief; when unbelief prevails in the heart, then the spill of immorality has no limits. Unbelief is the driving hidden force of lawlessness, the secret hidden in it. This is how our ancient Church interpreters understood the mystery of lawlessness. Blessed Theodoret writes: “I think that the Apostle meant by this the heresies that have arisen, because through them the devil leads many to deviate from the truth. He called them “the secret of lawlessness,” because a network of lawlessness is hidden in them. That is why the Apostle called the coming of the Antichrist above “a revelation.” For what he has always prepared in secret, he will then proclaim openly and openly.” Saint Damascus says the same thing: “The Apostle calls the teachings of heretics and their false dogmas the mystery of lawlessness. For they precede him, paving the way for him and preparing the time of deception. Heresies have come into the world since the times of the apostles. John the Evangelist says something similar: “For you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and now there are many antichrists” (1 John 2:18), meaning heretics.” “The mystery of iniquity is already at work,” indicating the intrigue of Satan is already in action, the predecessors of the Antichrist have already appeared. The Apostle wants to convey this idea: the main Antichrist could appear, but there is someone holding him back. Who? – Our God and Lord Jesus Christ. His incarnation has not yet completed its work. His saving power only began to operate from the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit. We must give it time to penetrate everywhere and revive everyone who is capable of receiving its life-giving effect. When she has completed her work, then that son of perdition will be allowed to come forth. These moments are hidden in the advice of God's providence. It can therefore be said that these are God’s advice and definitions that are holding back the appearance of the Antichrist. Before he said: “holding”, here he says: “hold”; means the same thing, only from two sides: there is God’s definition, and here – God Himself and the Lord, carrying out His definition. The words: “from the environment it will be” do not mean: it will be destroyed, it will cease to be, but it will be eliminated, it will leave the stage, it will cease its restraining activity. “Now” - not only in the time of the Apostle, but throughout all time, “until even today it is called” (Heb. 3:13). With this the Apostle embraces all the time while he holds. Ecumenius writes: “So, when the limit of God’s decree comes, and the decree that now restrains appears fulfilled, then the lawless one will be revealed without any delay.” Theophylact says the same: “When God’s decree, which now restrains the appearance of the Antichrist, is fulfilled, and the time appointed for him comes, then he will be revealed.” 2Sol. 2:8. And then the lawless one will appear, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the Spirit of His mouth, and will abolish by the appearance of His coming. “And then”, that is, when there is no one holding him back, or he withdraws, leaves the environment, appears, comes out on Wednesday, is born and begins to act as a “lawless man”, who does not want to know any law and acts only at the suggestion of the destroyer of the human race, to please his depraved, evil and proud disposition; he will appear as the universal ruler, whom everyone will worship, as indicated above. The Apostle does not depict the entire course of affairs, how he will achieve this, although he indicates below the methods he will use. Here he only says in advance that no matter how great he may seem, the Lord will only die and he will be gone. “The Lord Jesus will kill him,” take his life, strike him to death, as a mortal man worthy of all punishment. “By the Spirit of His mouth” - either by word or by breath: He will speak a word, or He will only breathe, and his life will be cut short. According to Ecumenius, the spirit of the mouth is a command and order, and, as it were, a breath. Isaiah also foresaw that “the rod from the root of Jesse... will slay the wicked with the spirit of His lips” (Is. 11:1, 4). And in the Apocalypse, Christ the Lord, called the Word of God, is depicted in such a way that “from His mouth comes a sharp weapon,” apparently as a sign of the decisiveness, speed and mercilessness of God’s righteous judgment and the wrath that accompanies it; as a result of which He will cast both the beast and his lying prophet, who deceived many with his signs, into “the burning lake with a bogey” (Apoc. 19:15, 20). It can therefore be assumed that for the Apostle here, the killing of the lips by the spirit is the final solution to the fate of the wicked by casting him into hell. “And he will abolish”, make his place empty, exclude him from among the living - the same thing as “kill”. The Greek word also gives a hint that with the abolition of the wicked, the Lord will destroy and divide his deeds. All his pomp, all his deceptive illusions will disappear, and everyone will see his insignificance and the deceitfulness of his ostentation. “The appearance of His coming,” or the act of coming, the coming itself, or the image of the coming, the form in which it will take place. Both mean that just as wax melts in the face of fire, as smoke disappears in the face of the wind, so before the face of the Lord coming to judgment, the wicked man and all his work will not stand, everything will scatter like dust. So majestic, omnipotent and threatening will be the coming of the Lord for the man of lawlessness and all sinners! Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle, as much as possible, showed the greatness of the Master’s power. For, having come from heaven, he says, he will only say and betray the destroyer to final destruction. The prophet Isaiah also foretold this; for, having said: “a rod will come out of the root of Jesse,” and having described what kind of rod it is, he added: “and with the spirit of the lips he will kill the wicked” (Is. 11: 1, 4). But it seems that in this image one can also see the all-purifying power of the second coming of the Lord “in flaming fires,” as mentioned above (2 Thess. 1:8). Now every sin and iniquity walks through the pillars of the world, raising its head, mixed with virtue and truth and even prevailing over them. Then the righteous will be separated from the sinners, and these latter will be imprisoned in one place that never leaves. On the stage of the world there will remain only purity, holiness and truth. This purification of all things, which is meant to be, is depicted by the Apostle under the guise of the abolition of the wicked and his work as the appearance of the coming of the Lord. The Lord will come, and just as the light drives away the darkness, and the wind drives away the fog, so He will drive out and constrain all untruth and sin to the place designated by Him. And the all-bright kingdom of truth and goodness will come. The Apostle speaks about this insignificance of the lawless man and all his illusory pomp before the greatness and power of the Lord before depicting his flattering and dangerous machinations for our weakness, in order to keep trust and hope in the Lord in a vigorous and strong form, and this is so that the subsequent depiction of the machinations of the Antichrist will not bring despondency and horror to the Thessalonians. He inspires them: the son of perdition will come, but do not be afraid, this is the Lord you believe in! Saint Chrysostom writes: “The lawless one will appear. What then? – This is immediately followed by consolation from the Apostle, for he adds: “Whom the Lord will kill.” Just as fire, when it only approaches, even before it approaches, numbs and destroys small animals that are even far away; just as Christ, by His very appearance and coming, will kill the Antichrist. It is enough that He appears, and all this will perish. As soon as the Lord appears, he will put an end to the deception.” b) A depiction of the machinations of the Antichrist and an indication of whom he will deceive (2 Thess. 2:9–12) And what has been said would be enough to calm the Thessalonians. But the Apostle saw an opportunity to draw a lesson and inspiration from here - strictly and sincerely adhere to the accepted Divine truth. Therefore, he continued his speech about the Antichrist, depicting his deceit and false love of those who would stick to him to their own detriment. The following questions are addressed here: how will the Antichrist succeed? – Through false signs and deception (verses 9, 10). How will they believe him? - They will believe lies because they themselves do not have the truth and a sincere attitude towards it (verses 10, 11). What will happen? - All unbelievers and unjust people will receive judgment, will be condemned and punished, and will go to destruction (verse 12). The conclusion from here: rejoice that you have accepted the truth and contain it. This alone will save you from the wiles of the Antichrist, from being carried away after him and from the harmful consequences of this. Under Christ the Lord you are in a safe haven. Just hold on. 2Sol. 2:9, 10. This is His coming, according to the work of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all the deceit of unrighteousness among those who are perishing, not having received the truth for the sake of love, so that they may be saved. This will be the Antichrist! He will appear fully armed with false signs and all deception, in flattering speeches, fictitious tales, in cunning comparisons of persons and things. “His also is the coming.” It's not about the coming itself, but about what it will be like. “Is” stands in place of the undoubted future. The matter is decided - his coming will be as it is depicted here. Thus the omnipotent God judged and deigned. “According to the work of Satan” - it will not be his coming, for he will come into the world according to the general law of the origin of people, but his arming with signs. He will work with the power of Satan. And the Apocalypse says that the (ancient) serpent “will give him his strength and great power” (Apoc. 13:2). Satan will rely on him with all his strength, for it will be the end for him too. “In all power, signs and lying wonders.” All this is the same thing - ghostly amazing wonders. He will imitate the Lord and the holy Apostles; only with them everything was true and in the forms of truth, but with him everything will be illusory and false, and in the forms of lies, in order to give it movement. In the Apocalypse, some of these wonders are roughly signified: “fire will create a ladder on the earth before men,” make an icon of the beast and give it spirit, so that it will speak (Apoc. 13:13–15), and the like. But all these will be magical wonders and tricks. Saint Chrysostom writes: “He will reveal great power, but there will be nothing true in this. “In false miracles,” he says, either deceptive (apparent), or deceptive. The goal of everything will be deception, the Apostle predicted this, so that (those who have to live) would not be deceived then.” Theodoret adds: “The miracles will not be true, and such miracles are performed by those who deceive with the dexterity of their hands, because they show for gold that it is not gold at all, and they do something else, which is soon exposed.” Ecumenius is somewhat more specific: “The signs will be false either because he will show them ghostly and avert his eyes, or because through them he will lead into lies - in this way he will present things that can deceive even believers.” “And in all deceitful lies.” This is another type of his techniques - deception, luring into deception with speeches and various tricks and tricks. To use all kinds of deception in both word and deed is unrighteous deception, presenting one when the other is in reality. With his marvels he will create charm, and with these flatteries he will incite people to believe lies and lag behind the truth. “Flattery is in his hand,” according to the prophet Daniel, “and he will scatter many with flattery” (Dan. 8:25). "In the Perishing". No matter how great and varied the efforts and methods of the Antichrist are to seduce and draw into his lies, he will have success, however, only in the circle of those who are of the same spirit with him, that is, have fallen away from God and the Lord, despise His commandments with their hearts and, knowing that their path leads to destruction, do not leave it, abandoning themselves to their fate in despair. Since he himself is the son of destruction, he will only have time to attract to himself those who are perishing. And these perishing ones will perish not by God’s determination, but because they have loved a destructive way of life and disposition. God uses everything to reason and convert sinners, and when nothing can take them, and it is not foreseen that it would be possible, then he delivers them into the hands of his will. And everyone in his life meets people to whom, no matter what you say, they are all their own, as if dumbfounded and petrified. During their preaching, the holy Apostles met such people everywhere and testified through the mouth of Saint Paul that “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are saved the power of God is” (1 Cor. 1:18), and that they themselves are “to the sheep (those who perish) the stench of death into death, and to the sheep (those who are being saved) the stench of animals to the belly” (2 Cor. 2:15, 16). During the time of the Antichrist, his foolishness will seem like wisdom to perish, and his noxious stench will seem like a fragrance. Here it will be the same as with cholera epidemics, which seize only those who have a predisposition to them. “I have not accepted the truth through love, in order to be saved by it.” That is why they are perishing! Because they did not accept the saving truth. God saw that people were perishing, falling into the abyss of sin and into the destructive bonds of slavery to the passions and their sower, the devil. For this reason He sent His only begotten Son, to pave the way for them to begin and to show them in faith in Him and in the grace acceptable by faith. The holy Apostles spread the news of this everywhere. Those who accepted were among those saved; those who did not accept remained in destruction. Such are they during the time of the Apostles, such are they after them until now, and such will they be in the last days. The apostolic, God-enlightened eye of the mind sees all this mass and gives them the inscription: “perishing.” The Thessalonians had before them these perishing unbeliefs. The Apostle says, as it were: in this area of ​​​​those who have not accepted our saving word, he will have success, and not among you who have believed, and like you who will believe. It is worthy of note that the Apostle with his word embraces not only those who did not accept the Christian truth, no matter how much they wanted to listen to it; but even those who heard it understood what was the matter and did not accept it, and even those who accepted it with their minds, but did not love it with their hearts; embraces not only unbelievers - non-Christians, but also Christians by name, and not in heart, who are indifferent to the faith they profess and are not jealous of being obedient to its demands, becoming what they are called, indifferent to it. For he says: “having not accepted the truth in love,” they have not loved the truth; they do not have it in their hearts, although they see it. They see the truth, but keep their hearts on the side opposite to the truth. Therefore, they themselves are lies and, being such, they will love lies. The essential saving truth is that God sent His Son into the world - the Savior of the world. That is why the Holy Fathers interpret the words: “I did not accept the love of the truth” as follows: they did not accept Christ the Lord. For He is both boundless love and all-perfect truth. Saint Chrysostom writes: “He calls Christ the love of truth. For Christ was both, and came for the sake of both, out of love for us and to reveal the true meaning of everything.” Theodoret and all the others are the same. But it's the same thing. For it is necessary not only to accept the Gospel, but also to be united with the Lord, or this combination consists of the proper acceptance of the Gospel truth. He alone is extracted from the mass of the perishing who cleaves to the Lord Jesus Christ, becomes one spirit with Him, is grafted into Him as into the one true living vine. 2Sol. 2:11. And for this reason, God will send them the power of flattery, so that they believe lies. This is a terrible moral punishment from God! “Afterwards” does not mean that he deliberately sends what they do not want, but lets through to them what they want and seek. The evil spirit of flattery and lies is constantly trying to take possession of everyone, darken everyone and drag them into lies; but God does not allow him, when among those who do not follow the truth there are still those who give hope of conversion, who have not yet completely given themselves over to false paths, who sometimes still think of leaving behind lies and taking the side of the truth - He does not allow him, so that they do not suffer violence from him within, for he can shake even the strong, and not only these weak ones. When they finally completely give up and surrender to the destructive path they have chosen, form their hearts with it and unite with it, and stop even thinking about leaving it behind, then God will accept His hand that restrains the evil spirit of flattery, and it, let through, will rush at them, pass into their heart and there it will begin to exert the effect of flattery, to attract them to lies - and will attract them. They will accept the lie with all their hearts, and then they will reveal it outside, apparently joining the Antichrist. But this will only bring out what is hidden inside. Saint Chrysostom is looking for: “Why, you say, will God allow all this to happen? “Fear not, beloved, but listen to what (the Apostle) says: (the Antichrist) will prevail only over those who are perishing, who, even if he had not come, would not have believed.” Theodoret adds: “This: “God will send them the work of flattery,” the Apostle said instead - he will allow flattery to appear, so that they will be lovers of deceit. For God will not send this flattery, but will destroy it with the word of His mouth.” Ecumenius: “Afterwards” - do not accept it as if God sent it, but this is how the Apostle usually expresses permission from God.” Theophylact: “Afterwards” - instead he will allow him to come. Look, first they rejected the truth; and then God abandoned them, and lies took possession of them.” 2Sol. 2:12. May all those who did not believe the truth, but were pleased with unrighteousness, receive judgment. “Yes, they will accept judgment” - they will righteously be condemned. God willing, their evil moral and religious system will be revealed, and they will be ripe for judgment. Lies are self-incriminating; and the following lies expose themselves. They will be unrequited at the trial because they believed an obviously destructive lie and did not believe the obviously saving truth. - “All those who did not believe the truth, but were pleased with unrighteousness.” From the Greek, “all these,” unbelievers and others, who did not accept the Gospel truth in their hearts with living faith, and did not establish their lives, their feelings and dispositions according to its demands, but, on the contrary, lay with their hearts, favored all untruths, and wrong wisdom, and wrong morals, and found pleasure in remaining and wallowing in these wrongs. The most obvious denunciation of them will be that they will believe the Antichrist. Saint Chrysostom writes: “The lips of those who are condemned to destruction will be blocked. How? – They would not have believed in Christ, even if the Antichrist had not come; but he will come for the purpose of exposing them. So that they would not then say that since Christ (apparently a man) called himself God, then for this very reason we did not believe in Him; because we heard that there is one God, from whom are all things, and as a result we did not believe - this pretext (for justification) will be taken away from them by the Antichrist. For when he comes, and, despite the fact that he does not command anything righteous, but only lawlessness, they will believe in him, solely for the sake of his false miracles, then their lips will be stopped. For if you do not believe in Christ, then even more so you should not believe in the Antichrist. The first said that He was sent by the Father, but this last one (will say) something completely different. That is why Christ says: “I came in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me: if anyone comes in his own name, him you receive” (John 5:43). But they will say we saw signs? – And many great miracles were performed by Christ; therefore, one should rather believe in Him. In addition, much was predicted about the Antichrist: that he is a lawless one, that he is the son of perdition, that his coming (with pomp) will be according to the work of Satan; whereas, on the contrary, about Christ, that He is the Savior and will bring countless benefits.” – Theodorit, Ecumenius and Theophylact have the same speech. c) The bright fate of believers, as long as they are faithful to the faith (2 Thess. 2:13–17) Above (verses 11, 12) the fate of those who do not believe the Gospel truth and favor unrighteousness is depicted: because they do not believe, they will be betrayed to the spirit of lies, they will be carried away by it to the worship of the Antichrist and then will be condemned to eternal torment. The believing Thessalonians, and through them all Christians, have been assigned a different fate. They are loved by God, chosen and called to eternal salvation and glory with the Lord. The apostle seems to be inspiring: “You have nothing to fear. Your future is so bright and joyful that we only have to thank God for it.” Saint Damascus and blessed Theophylact put this section into such a connection, verses 13-17, with the previous one. Saint Damascus: “Having laid out what concerns the unbelieving Jews, and showing what their end will be (saying: “that they may receive judgment”), he now sets forth what concerns those who believed.” Theophylact: “Since he said something terrible, which could confuse an unstable soul, he now calms the heart, teaching that all this is terrible for others who are perishing, for whom it was destined. For you, we must thank God for the fact that He chose you and predestined you for salvation, according to foreknowledge that you were worthy.” The Apostle’s series of thoughts is as follows: first, testimony and confirmation that God has reserved for the Thessalonians a bright future in election and calling, verses 13, 14; further indicates an indispensable condition for its improvement in fidelity to faith, verse 15. But since only God’s promises are immutable, and the condition of fidelity on the part of man’s shaky will cannot be considered necessarily fulfilled, the Apostle encloses a prayer for the confirmation of believers both in sound doctrine and in good deeds required by the Christian faith, verses 16, 17. Briefly: the Apostle’s thought This is: you have nothing to fear. You are chosen for salvation and glory; just stand there. And God help you! 2Sol. 2:13. We must always thank God for you, beloved brothers of the Lord, for God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation in the holiness of the Spirit and the true faith. “We...” that is, St. Paul and his collaborators, “must give thanks.” They feel obliged to thank God for the bright state of Thessalonians in the present and the even brighter future awaiting them - out of love for the Thessalonians, considering their good as their own, and out of devotion to the duty of apostleship, the success of which is visible in their conversion and faith. Instead of saying: it will be good for you, he says: you should thank God. This is how we often express ourselves when we want to express our thoughts about the well-being of ourselves or others: there is no need to be sad - thank God, or thank... "Brotherly beloved from the Lord." He begins the depiction of good promises and hopes by pointing out the love that warms them from everywhere - both his own, calling them brothers, and the Lord’s, reminding them of the Lord’s love for them. This is a sweet title; but not by the euphony of the word, but by the essence of the matter. The Lord testified His love for them by choosing and calling them to faith and grace-filled sanctification. But, having believed and been sanctified by grace, they began to feel the warm breath of this love in their hearts. So are all true Christians. They are in the arms of the Lord's love, like plants in a greenhouse. She nourishes them, grows them, strengthens them, completes them. “For God chose you to eat from the beginning.” Thanks for choosing me in the first place. For “from the beginning” here is the same as in other places – “from ages” (Eph. 3:9, 11): “from ages and generations” (Col. 1:26), or “before the ages” (1 Cor. 2:7), “before the years of eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9). He offers similar thanksgiving to God in his letter to the Ephesians: “as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4). This is where he lifts the minds of the Thessalonian believers! And he says, as it were: nothing has happened yet; Only the One Trihypostatic God abided, and this, the all-blessed God in Himself, was then still thinking about you, had you in mind and was disposed towards you, wanting to choose you and appropriate you to Himself. Of course, He chose you “by foreknowledge” (Rom. 8:28) that you would prove worthy (Theophylact); but the fact that you turned out to be worthy is a matter of His goodness (Ecumenius). If you are so honored by God and surrounded by His care, then why should you be embarrassed? “He chose to eat... for salvation in the holiness of the Spirit and faith (from the Greek “in faith”) truth.” For those who do not believe, there will be destruction, but for you, salvation, to which you were chosen, has been delayed. This salvation will be revealed in all its power in eternity, like the destruction of those, but its beginning is supposed and its acquisition is accomplished here. The originators, producers and perfectors of salvation are the grace of the Holy Spirit and faith. Hearing the preaching of the truth, they believe, believing, are granted the grace of the Holy Spirit through the reception of the sacraments, and renewed by it, begin to work out their salvation, remaining faithful to the holy will of God. This saving system is already the threshold of eternal salvation, or its beginning; for death does not change anything in him. Both in the eyes of God and in the faith of believers, this is already eternal salvation. Others express the whole thought this way: from the beginning God chose you for salvation, and then decided to sanctify you by the Spirit and give you to believe in the truth. The fulfillment of this God's predestination is seen in the words of the following verse: “in the same way I called,” that is, to sanctification by the Spirit and faith, which is in you, as you see: for you both believe and are sanctified by the Spirit, which is evidence of your original election. But Saint Chrysostom, without this circulation of thought, writes: “How did you choose for salvation? “(The Apostle) explained this when he said: “in the holiness of the Spirit,” that is, that he sanctified you with the Spirit and true faith, he sanctified you with the Spirit, for our salvation depends on this, and not on works, nor on deeds, but on true faith.” The same Ecumenius: “He chose you for salvation, and chose you through sanctification by His Holy Spirit and through true faith.” There are two producers of our salvation: grace and faith, one from the person of God, and the other from us. First we believe, then we are granted the grace of the Holy Spirit; but faith itself is not without grace. That the Apostle puts sanctification from the Spirit first, and faith after, does not change either the order or the meaning of saving actions. In the matter of salvation, grace and freedom are inseparable. Both at the time when salvation begins and during all the time it is accomplished, they are not separated for a single moment until the end, and this is both in the general work of salvation and in every particular matter related to salvation, so that as soon as the action of one of these producers stops, the work of salvation also stops. Our subtlety of mind is not enough to accurately determine who precedes and who will follow when. In general, it is safest to believe that grace and freedom always act together in those who are being saved: neither freedom can do anything saving without grace, nor grace can act for salvation without freedom. Our ancient interpreters had in mind in this place to indicate what is ours and what is from God in the matter of salvation. So Blessed Theophylact writes: “With the words: “in the holiness of the Spirit,” the Apostle showed that God saved us, sanctifying us with the Spirit. Then, so that no one says: so what? didn't we bring anything? - added: “and in the faith of truth,” that is, he sanctified us, who brought faith to the truth, that is, to true things. For it is not the lies that we have believed, but the truth itself.” Ecumenius says the same about faith: “We only brought it, and He sanctified us with the Spirit.” So at the beginning of salvation, so in its continuation. Saint Chrysostom asks: “Why did he speak first not about faith, but about sanctification?” And he answers: “Because even after sanctification we have a great need for it, so that we do not go astray.” Theophylact also answers in the same way. But this does not mean that they recognize faith itself as inherent in us without the action of grace. In the above words one can already see the idea that faith itself is the fruit of the all-sanctifying Spirit, although it is not expressed. But Ecumenius definitely expressed it: “For this reason he first said: “in the holiness of the Spirit,” in order to show that we would not have believed if the grace of the Spirit had not sanctified us.” So, there is nothing from us? “The desire and the search within our power come from us, but the matter is always from grace.” The desire for faith, consent to it, election of it is ours; Living faith itself is a work of grace. 2Sol. 2:14. I have called you with our gospel to receive the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. “In tenderness” – that’s what he called for. Why? – Some say: to salvation; others: to sanctification and faith. But this is one and the same thing, for salvation and its producers are inseparable. Where there is sanctification by grace and faith, there is salvation. - “Called by our gospel.” God has called you through us. We have spoken a word to you; but you should not see anything human in this. God brought us to you, God gave us a word, He also imparted such power to this word that, listening to it, you accepted it and agreed to follow this call. “You see,” asks Saint Chrysostom, “how (the Apostle) lets them know that nothing depends on them, but everything depends on God.” “So that when they hear about faith,” writes Theophylact, “they do not become arrogant, just as they themselves have brought something, makes it clear that this too is from God. "In the tenderness of the call". What? – You can be saved through sanctification and faith, so that even though you believe, this is the grace of Him who called. For if He had not called you with our gospel, how could you have heard?” "To gain glory". The beginning of the path of salvation is calling, the middle is achieving salvation through the action of sanctifying grace and faith, the end is receiving eternal glory. In the first message he said that God has placed us in “receipt of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:9); here he says: called “to receive glory.” When we receive glory, then it will be fully revealed that we are saved and what the power of salvation is. Glory and salvation are inseparable. But here this glory is hidden inside, like treasure in scanty vessels, and there it will shine outward. Therefore, the Apostle in another place says about himself that he raises all the labors and sorrows of the gospel with that good desire, so that those who believe will receive “salvation in the Lord with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10). Receiving the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is receiving that glory with which He Himself is glorious, seated at the right hand of God the Father. So He Himself certifies: “Where I am, there also will My servant be” (John 12:26). About this, in His last prayer, He prayed to the Father: “Let them see My glory, which you have given to Me” (John 17:24). It should be noted that in our Slavic translation the words: “to receive glory,” and in Russian: “to achieve glory,” they exactly contain the idea that those who are being saved are called to participate in the glory of the Lord. But the Greek word περιποιησις does not mean receiving, but supplying, and not so much oneself as another, not so much receiving as delivering. Therefore, all our ancient interpreters, following Saint Chrysostom, understand this passage in such a way that it is not the believers who will receive glory, but that through the believers the Lord will be glorified, that is, the believers are called by the gospel to the glory of the Lord, to glorify the Lord. The oldest translation of the Syriac also agrees with this, in which the following thought: “Let you be an adornment to the Lord, so that the Lord may be glorified through you.” These are the words of the holy fathers! Saint Chrysostom writes: “And this cannot be considered unimportant if Christ recognizes our salvation as His glory. For the glory of the Lover of Mankind is that there should be as many as possible saved. Therefore, our Lord is great if He so desires our salvation. Great is the Holy Spirit who accomplishes our sanctification.” Ecumenius: “Glory to Christ, that many are saved by faith in Him, as He said above: “He will be glorified in His saints” (2 Thess. 1:10). See how highly a person is placed when Christ imputes our salvation to His glory.” Theophylact speaks in the words of Saint Chrysostom and adds: “Who would not love such a Master? And who is not zealous for His glory, that is, for his salvation?” Theodoret only hinted at the future glorification of the believers, and immediately invites them to glorify the Lord: “This will happen in due time (that is, receiving glory), and we will glorify the Giver of good things, because He has made us worthy of salvation and given us the Holy Spirit, so that everyone glorifies Him for us.” Those who accept this ancient understanding must keep in mind that in this case it should not only be understood that the Lord is glorified by the salvation of believers, but that believers should consider it their duty to glorify the Lord and do everything so that His name is glorified in them and not blasphemed, as the Apostle commands in another place: “They were naturally bought with a price. Glorify God in all your bodies, and in your souls, which are God” (1 Cor. 6:20). The last reminder comes very much to us, who are called to salvation not by a special act of evangelism, but by birth itself; because we often forget how great this mercy of God is shown to us, and not only do we not glorify the Lord, but we also do not properly honor our faith itself. 2Sol. 2:15. Therefore, brothers, stand and keep the traditions, which you have learned either by word or by our message. “In the same way,” having such a purpose as glorifying the Lord, or receiving the glory of the Lord, being armed with such powerful means as faith and the all-sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit, so covered by God’s favor, which is expressed in your initial election to salvation, “stand ...” So says the military leader to the soldiers armed and placed in line against the enemies, pointing ahead to the crowns of reward. And the Apostle’s thought is visible: there is something to stand for. You are being saved, as opposed to being lost. This is the rank in which you have been placed by the Lord who loved you. Stop, otherwise you will lose everything. “It is necessary for you, who have been granted such blessings, to be firm” (Saint Damascus). God has chosen you from all eternity, led you to faith, and bestowed grace. Make an effort on your part to stand steadfastly in the order of the new life introduced to you. Your effort to stand is an urgent condition for salvation. It is the main driving life force of Christians. Everything else is a means! If you don't become him, life will stop. The words: “keep the traditions” explain what they must stand for: they must strictly hold, preserve, observe everything that was taught to them by the Apostles. Don't just be listeners, but also doers. They heard, they accepted; do it so that everyone can see that you are not only called, but by the very work of Christ - true Christians. “Tradition...” in our ordinary speech means a legend, or a custom, or a belief that has been passed on from ancestors to descendants since time immemorial. Therefore it borders on vague rumor, subject to discussion and criticism. In the word of God, in the mouth of the Apostle Paul, it means teaching Divine teaching and is taken from the work of teachers, who teach (παραδιδουν) lessons in classes, and when they go to class, they say that they are going εις την παραδοσιν, to give a lesson. Thus, “tradition” here is equivalent to the Divine Revelation of the New Testament and embraces everything that was introduced into humanity as a result of the commandment of the Lord: “Go and teach” (Matthew 28:19). Blessed Theodoret writes in this place: “Recognize as the rule of teaching what we taught you, what we preached to you when we were with you, and what we wrote when we left you.” “Word or message” are ways of teaching the Divine Christian faith. And scripture is the same tradition as the word. But in church usage later, Tradition began to refer exclusively to the teaching that was orally taught by the Apostles and preserved by the Church. This was required by the course of church life. When the apostolic writings became generally known and entered into one composition, then that part of the Divine revelation that was contained in them was drawn from these writings. Meanwhile, many things were believed and practiced in Christian societies that are not in these writings. To the question: where does this come from? The answer was: this is how the holy Apostles taught orally and personally established and instituted it, or this is how it was handed down by the Apostles, or simply: there is a tradition. And thus, they began to call this not the written Apostolic teaching, or Divine revelation, Tradition, but what was contained in the writings of the Apostles - Scripture. They respected both equally; they valued both equally. Saint Chrysostom writes in response to the present text: “From this it obviously follows that (the Apostles) did not betray everything (to the believers) through letters, but they communicated a lot without writing; Meanwhile, both are equally reliable. Therefore, we must recognize church tradition as reliable. “There is a legend, look no further.” This is what both the Church teachers who preceded Saint Chrysostom and those who followed him said. Much of what the Apostles taught orally and instituted by them personally later entered into the writings of their successors, the shepherds of the Church, but much remained unwritten by them, but was kept in the hearts, or in practice, in the order of Christian life. Other things were deliberately not written down, such as, for example, the image of performing the sacraments, according to the remark of Cyril of Jerusalem, for the sake of hiding it from unbelievers, who are unworthy of either hearing or reading about it until they believe. From here it is self-evident how unfoundedly heterodox people reject church teachings and rites that are not indicated in Scripture. They also say that they are afraid to accept what is not apostolic, and therefore they reject everything that is not contained in Scripture. Gold miners collect not only what is clearly gold, but often earth and sand, and in large quantities, for fear of missing a grain of gold, even though it is not visible. They should have done the same. Much, of course, was introduced after the Apostles; but on the basis of the apostolic tradition and in the same spirit. In this same general mass the directly apostolic is hidden. Is what is apostolic expensive? - It’s dear to everyone. So it is necessary to maintain everything, the contents of the Church, out of serious fear, as if, fearing to accept what is not apostolic, not to trample on what is apostolic. Trampling on what is apostolic is already a disastrous thing; whereas accepting in respect not the apostolic (directly), but agreeing in everything with the apostolic and imbued with its spirit, cannot cause any harm. There is only one legitimate fear, lest we accept something contrary to the apostolic. But the Church itself watches over this, having a constant law to reject any tradition that, appearing under the name of the apostolic, would be contrary to the apostolic teaching. The apostles, planting Christianity on earth, did not teach theory, but started life. Having arrived in any place, they taught people the Christian teaching, sound concepts about everything, gave commandments with what virtues they should decorate their hearts, established rules of life, how to behave outwardly, or defined Christian behavior in the face of believers and unbelievers, established how to pray to God in a general meeting and privately at home, how to perform the sacraments, how to support the accepted teaching, and, appointing persons who would oversee all this, and They did something else, and having sanctified them, they went to another place. Christian life in its entirety began immediately. So in another, and in a third place, and in all; so one Apostle, so another, so all. And in all the ends of the earth, wherever the red feet of the evangelists reached, Christian orders of life, moral and religious, family, church, social, were established, all in one spirit and according to one drawing, not drawn up on earth, but inscribed in heaven, like the drawing of the tabernacle. Hence, as the Church came out of the hands of the apostles and appeared throughout the whole world, such it is according to the will and determination of God Himself, and such it must be in order to bring about the salvation of perishing humanity. So we see everywhere, from the first times, in the Church of God, laity and sanctified persons - deacons, priests, bishops, who were charged with preaching the word, consecrating with the sacraments, bestowing grace, and leading in life; we see the established seven sacraments and orders of prayer and divine services: Vespers, Matins and Mass; We see that among Christians not all days were equal, but others were set aside exclusively for prayer and the satisfaction of religious needs, and that there was no meat-eating in a row, but there were days, and many, on which it was determined to observe strict abstinence, and, moreover, not at the same time, but for all times; We see that among Christians in all private Churches there were special zealots who, having left everything and renounced everything, devoted themselves exclusively to prayer and contemplation of God, with strict abstinence and exhaustion of the flesh, in the true confidence that in this way they would most likely eradicate passions in themselves, ascend to purity and be worthy of tangible communion with God, promised to all Christians, with power and action all-sanctifying grace, which guided us on this difficult path. This, in general, has been the structure of Christian life from the first times. What was introduced later was introduced into the same order not as a new institution, but as an expansion or better adaptation to the place and time established by the Apostles. To fast, common to all Christians, at one specific time, is the apostolic law. The Apostles undoubtedly established fasts on Wednesday and Friday and fasting in remembrance of the sufferings of the Lord. On this basis, all other posts and all fasting ranks were later established in the Church. The Apostles are supposed to be strict ascetics, and the general law is prescribed for them even in Scripture (in the Epistle to the Corinthians); and then from this all the monastic ranks grew. To gather together for prayer and with one mouth to praise God and offer prayer to Him is an apostolic institution. It was under them that some church songs were introduced and, perhaps, given by them. But then from this beginning all the various church songs developed. So it is in everything. The entire structure of Christian life, in general, comes from the Apostles. And after that nothing was added to this general structure, but only the particulars developed more extensively and more diversely. But the apostolic details are also hidden here. And all this, both applied in time and dedicated by the Apostles, is preserved by our holy Orthodox Church. Everything is dear to us in the Church. And all cautious and reverent Christians strictly observe the prayer and sanctification orders that characterize our church life, seeing in this the necessary support for the moral and religious inner Christian life. 2Sol. 2:16, 17. May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, both our God and Father, who loved us and gave us eternal consolation and good hope in grace, comfort your hearts and confirm your blessings in every word and deed. The Apostle said that the Thessalonians who believed were chosen for salvation, as the faith and grace given to them clearly testify to this. Then, so that they would not think that they themselves had nothing to work for after that, he added: “stand and hold...” This was given to you by the goodness of God, now the matter is up to your efforts. Faith and grace are given for salvation, but you still have to work out salvation, arming yourself with faith and grace. If you do not strengthen yourself in order to be firm in faith and life by faith, you will fall from grace and lose salvation. Finally, so that they do not again deviate into wrong thoughts, as if they can continue and complete the work God began in them with their own efforts and labors alone, he adds a prayer for their confirmation in faith and in a good life, thereby teaching them to ask themselves from God for help in everything that they undertake and do, as Christians, in the forms of salvation. Our efforts are ours, and the success of our efforts is from God. God sees the efforts and gives help. Help is appropriate for someone who is growing stronger, but powerless to do the job properly, and not for someone who lies carelessly and does not make any effort to move at least some of his members. Saint Chrysostom says: “Again, exhortation is followed by prayer.” Theophylact adds: “It’s like this: I said: stop; but everything is from God.” In his prayer, the Apostle remembered in advance the bounties of God, as is done in all our church prayers, for the one who prays always needs to revive in himself the hope of receiving what he asks for, which is accomplished by bringing to memory the bounties of God. The subject of prayer is the very thing that he commanded before. He said: “stand and keep the traditions.” Now he says, as it were: May the Lord help you in this, confirming you in every word and deed, in right dogmas and in a virtuous life. “Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father...” Begins with the Lord Savior, the incarnate Son of God, and ascends to God the Father. For this is the way of ascension of us, who have fallen away, to God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Intercessor of God and men, the mediator who restored the union of people with God. Everything we have is from the Lord. He is in us and we are in Him. But in Him and with Him God the Father also exists, is seen, and is felt. So in deed, so in word. Saint Chrysostom, due to the circumstances of his flock, gives another guidance in this regard, which we cannot help but take into account: “Where are those now,” he says, who humiliate the Son, because He is named after the Father (when communicating) the grace of baptism? Here, on the contrary, (the Apostle) first says: “Our Lord Jesus Christ,” and then: “God and Father,” “not teaching,” Theodoret finishes, “that the Son is greater than the Father, but by changing the order showing equality. He denounces here the blasphemy of Arieva and Eunomius and makes it clear that the order of names does not mean a difference in dignity.” Let us add to this that, having mentioned the two persons of the Divinity, God the Son and God the Father (in the beginning it is also said about God the Holy Spirit, in the words: “in the holiness of the Spirit”), the Apostle turns to Them as to the one God, saying: “let him who is beloved, let him comfort” and “affirm.” Remembering two or all three persons of the Divinity, the Apostles in their consciousness did not bifurcate or disorient the one God, teaching us to always and in everything contemplate the three hypostases inseparably and unmerged in the one God and to believe that the grace that saves us is the grace of the one God, worshiped in the Trinity, acting inseparably and unmergedly in believers, since the work of salvation of each is accomplished “according to the vision of God the Father, in the holiness of the Spirit, by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2). To revive the hope of receiving what we ask for, the Apostle first exposes God’s love for us, the source of all God’s bounties, which constantly pours out all kinds of benefits on us: having loved, and then the generosity shown to us by the deed itself: “given.” What has God already given? - “Consolation is everlasting and hope is good.” But “eternal” carries thought beyond the limits of time, and “hope” is the aspiration of the future. What is it based on in order to nourish in the heart the certainty that although this talent is the future, it is as certain as if it were already there? - On the grace of the Holy Spirit, accepted and contained by all believers from the time of baptism: “in grace.” Having given grace, God gave eternal consolation and good hope. Grace is a deposit, or a deposit for the future (2 Cor. 1:22). In the grace received there is a guarantee of the undoubted receipt of eternal consolation and good hope. As in another place, pointing out that God did not spare His Son for our salvation, the Apostle cried out: “How can He not also give us all things with Him?” (Rom. 8:32), and here too, pointing to the grace received, he wants to suggest that after this we must understand everything promised as something that we actually have. “Eternal consolation and good hope” stand in this relationship: the grace of the Holy Spirit, descending into the heart, fills it with consolation and joy; for the fruit of the Spirit is joy, peace (Gal. 5:22). This gladness of the heart, which occurs over time, does not itself come from temporary phenomena, but from the Divine realm, which is outside of time; Moreover, having begun, it is destined not to end, but to continue throughout all ages and all eternity; finally, having arisen and revealing itself more and more, it foretells good things in the future, “for which no eye has seen, nor an ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9). Thus, from “eternal consolation”, “good hope” develops as a fruit, which is either a comforting hope, a good thing that has a pleasant, sweet effect on the heart, or a hope of comforting and cheerful blessings. From the perceived consolation, hope is born, which, in turn, elevates the consolation. This mutual interaction makes them inseparable. Our ancient interpreters understand them as if they expressed one thing - the hope of eternal blessings. Theodoret paraphrases these words as follows: “Who gave hope for future blessings.” Ecumenius and Theophylact ask: “What is eternal consolation?” And both give the same answer: “The hope of future blessings, which is why the Apostle calls it good.” And that the Apostle puts this out here precisely to revive the hope of receiving what he wants in this prayer, Saint Chrysostom points out this, saying: “You see how through prayer he tries to encourage their hearts, presenting guarantees and signs of God’s ineffable providence for them.” “Let it comfort your hearts and strengthen you.” Having remembered the generosity of God to all believers (for he says: he who loved “us” and, therefore, gave also to “us,” that is, to those who generally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ), the holy Apostle prays that God would make them and the Thessalonians partakers. What exactly is he asking for? - “Let it comfort your hearts and strengthen you,” - also your hearts, or you, like others, complement. Consolation is needed for those who are grieving, affirmation is needed for the weak, who can be shaken. The Solunians needed both. As those who had been subjected to persecution and oppression, they grieved and, as beginners, might not be firm in Christianity. The Apostle prays that God, as sorrowful ones, will comfort them, and as still unstable ones, He will strengthen them. He desires affirmation “in word and deed.” He wants affirmation in the word, so that when they speak, they speak in a Christian way, and for this they have Christian concepts about everything, or know and firmly contain all Christian teaching; therefore, the statement in the word will be the same as the statement in the right faith, in the right dogmas, in their true understanding and unshakable content. He wishes for affirmation in “deed blaza”, so that they do only good, and, whatever good they do, do it in a Christian way, with Christian feelings and dispositions - that is, he wishes them firmness in Christian behavior and in the Christian mood of the heart. “What has been said,” says Saint Chrysostom, “applies both to the dogmas of faith and to the rules of activity.” Theodoret writes something similar to this: “May he strengthen you in the faith, so that you may shine both with good words and with deeds similar to the word.” “In deed,” says Ecumenius, “Apostle here means life, and in word – right dogmas.” Theophylact then paraphrases the entire passage as follows: “May he establish you in right dogmas and good deeds.” The desire for consolation is connected with the desire for consolation by the Apostle, the desire for confirmation in faith and life according to faith - not by chance, but because the former is impossible without the latter. He who is not firm in faith and faulty in life, do not expect consolation in sorrowful circumstances. It flows from the testimony of your conscience that you are right before God and that if you suffer, you suffer in vain. For those who suffer in vain, God is always a barrier, consolation and deliverance. Our ancient interpreters pay more attention to this side. Ecumenius writes: “To be firm and steadfast in every word and deed serves as true consolation for Christians before receiving future benefits. And what can be equal to the consolation that is provided by the testimony of conscience that we please Christ with our life and behavior? Theophylact also believes that the Apostle wants the Thessalonians to be confirmed in right dogmas and a virtuous life so that, while they find consolation in this, they do not become seduced and fall under the weight of the sorrowful things that happen to them. “He who is established (in faith and life), no matter what he suffers, endures it courageously and is not seduced, for the preservation of right dogmas assures him of receiving future benefits, and a good life pleases him in that he suffers not as a villain, but as a servant of God.” Both took this thought from Saint Chrysostom, who writes: “This is the consolation that we remain unshakable. For he who does not hesitate endures whatever he has to endure with great patience; on the contrary, someone whose mind wavers is unable to commit a single good and valiant deed, because, like any paralytic, the soul wavers when it is not convinced that it is achieving a good goal.” You might be interested in: