Беседа 6

2Cor.3:1. Should we really get to know you again? Do we really need, like some others, letters of approval to you or from you? What is the life of the soul? “It is a great evil to speak shamefully and disgracefully.” 1. Since some could say that (the apostle) was praising himself, in order to prevent such an accusation, he says so. Although he had corrected this thought several times before when he said: “And who is capable of this?” , and: “we preach sincerely, as from God” (“from purity... verb”) (2 Cor. 2:16–17), nevertheless he is not satisfied; This is his custom, in order to remove as far as possible from himself the idea that he is saying something great about himself. He avoids this with the greatest diligence and care. And you, for your part, notice the great wisdom here (of the apostle). In fact, he so elevated and presented in such splendor and light circumstances that seemed unpleasant in themselves - I mean his misfortunes - that such a suspicion could be born from his description. He does the same further (in the message). Having listed countless disasters, sorrows, difficult circumstances, extreme need and the like, he added: “We do not present ourselves to you again, but we give you reason to boast about us” (“we do not praise ourselves..., but we give you praise for guilt”) (2 Cor. 5:12). But there he says it much stronger and with more indignation. Here are his words: “Do we really need, like some, letters of approval to you or from you?” ("or do we demand, like no one else, informative messages?") express love - where it was necessary and useful - his words are filled with both special power and indignation: "Not again," he says, "we present ourselves to you, but we give you a reason to boast about us" ("we do not again praise ourselves..., but we give you praise for guilt"); and again: "Don't you still think that we are only justifying ourselves to you?" ("Do you still think that we are giving you an answer?"). Because “we speak before God, in Christ” (“before God in Christ we say”)... “I am afraid that when I come, I will not find you as I do not want you, and also that you will not find me as you do not want.” (“I am afraid that when I come, I will not find you, but I will find you, but I will not find you what you do not want.”) ( 2 Corinthians 12:19–20). In order not to be reproached by flattery and solicitation of praise from them, he says to them: “I am afraid that when I come, I will not find you as I do not want, and also that you will not find me as you do not want.” But he says all this with great reproach; At first he doesn’t speak like that, but much more condescendingly. What do his words mean? Above, he spoke about temptations, dangers and the fact that God in Christ makes him a winner everywhere, and the whole universe knows about his victories. Having thus said something great about himself, he asks himself this question: “Should we really get to know you again?” (“Do we begin to inform you again?”) His words have the following meaning: maybe someone will tell us: “What does this mean, Paul? Why do you talk about yourself like that, why do you exalt yourself?” - to prevent such an objection, he says: “No, we do not want to boast and exalt ourselves before you; We are so far from asking for letters of approval to you that you yourself serve for us instead of a letter": “You,” he says, “are our letter” (“you are our epistle”) (2 Cor. 3:2). What does it mean: “You are our letter”? “If we need to recommend ourselves to others, we will put you in the middle instead of an approving letter.” He said the same thing in the first letter: “the seal of my apostleship “You are in the Lord” (“you are the seal of my apostleship”) (1 Cor. 9:2). But here he said not simply, but with some irony, in order to give his speech more power: “Do we really need,” he said, “letters of approval to you or from you?” ("or do we require notification messages?"). And referring to the false apostles, he added: “as for some, letters of approval to you or from you to others.” Then, since what was said was hard to hear, he further softens his words, saying: “You are our letter, written in our hearts, recognizable and read by all people; you show by yourselves that you are the letter of Christ” (“you are our message, written in our hearts, known... from everyone... you are manifest, as you are the message of Christ”) (2 Cor. 3:2). Here he not only expresses his love for them, but also testifies to their virtuous life, i.e., that with their virtues they can prove to everyone the dignity of their teacher. This is the meaning of the words: “You are our letter.” Whatever your letters would do, in which you would approve and glorify us, that is what you fulfill with your life according to faith, which everyone sees and hears. The virtues of the disciples serve as the best adornment for their mentor, and approve of him better than any letter. “Written in our hearts,” that is, which is known to everyone, because we carry you with us everywhere and keep you in our hearts. It’s as if he were saying: “You serve us as approval before others, and we always have you in our hearts, and we proclaim your virtues before everyone. Therefore, not only do we not need letters of approval from you to others, because you serve as our approval, but for you ourselves we do not need the testimony of others, because we love you very much. Letters of approval are needed for strangers, but you are in our hearts.” And he didn’t just say, “are there,” but “are written,” that is, in such a way that you cannot be erased from our hearts. Both by reading our messages and by being assured from our hearts, everyone knows the love we have for you. 2. So, if letters are used to show that such and such is my friend and enjoys my power of attorney, then your love replaces all this for us. And therefore, whether we come to you, we do not need to take approval from others, since this completely replaces your love for us, or for others - again we do not need to take letters of approval from you, because instead of them, the same love is enough for us here too. We carry the message in our hearts. Then, raising them to a higher understanding, he calls them the message of Christ, saying: “you show by yourselves that you are the letter of Christ” (“showing that you are the message of Christ”) (2 Cor. 3:3). And having said this, he extracts from here a reason to talk about the law; and again calls them his message, but in a different sense. Above, he called them messages because they serve as approval for him; and here he calls them the message of Christ, as having the law of God written in them. “What God was pleased to reveal to everyone and to you, all this,” he says, “is written in your hearts; and we have prepared you to receive these letters. As Moses prepared the stones and the tablets, so we have prepared your souls. That is why he says: “through our service” (“served by us”). But they will say that both tablets are equal, because both were written by God, and these by the Spirit (of God). Where is the difference between them? “Written,” he says, “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh of the heart” (“Written not with ink, but by the Spirit of God who lives; not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the heart of flesh”), and what is the difference between the Spirit and ink and tablets of stone and flesh, the same is the difference between those and other writings: the same is the difference and those who served (the New Testament letters) from the one who served (the Old Testament). But so that they would not think that he said too much about himself, he immediately explains himself, saying: “We have such confidence in God through Christ” (“this is the hope of the imams in Christ to God”). And thus again he attributes everything to God, and calls Christ the author of everything. “Not because we ourselves are able to think anything from ourselves, as if from ourselves” (“We are not content to think anything from ourselves, as if from ourselves”) (2 Cor. 3:4-5). Look, here he is also moderating his speech. And this is because he possessed the virtue of humility to the highest degree. And therefore, as soon as he said something great about himself, he immediately tried again in every way to soften what he said. He does this here too when he says: “not because we ourselves are capable of thinking something from ourselves, as if from ourselves.” That is, I did not say: “We have such confidence,” according to which we assimilate one thing to ourselves and another to God; on the contrary, one in which we place everything on God and impute it to Him, because “our ability is from God. He has given us the ability to be ministers of the New Testament" ("our satisfaction is from God, even as the ministers have pleased us to be the new covenant") (2 Cor. 3:5-6). What does “satisfied” mean? That God has made us capable of such service. It is no small matter to communicate to the universe such tablets and writings that are much more important than the first. That’s why he added: “not letters, but spirit” (“not to writing, but to the Spirit”). Here is another new difference (of the old and new tablets). Which one? Wasn't the old law spiritual? How does (the same apostle) say: “we know that the law is spiritual” (“we know that the law is spiritual”) (Rom. 7:14)? He was spiritual, but he did not give the Spirit, because Moses did not bring the Spirit, but letters, and we are sure that we are giving the Spirit. Showing this more clearly, he further says: “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (“the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”). And he says this not without a purpose, but in order to denounce those who were vain about performing Jewish rituals. Here he calls the “letter” (writing) the law, which threatens punishment for those who sin, and the spirit, the grace that, through the sacrament of baptism, gives life to those killed by sins. Having thus shown the difference between these and other tablets from their very essence, he does not stop there; but continues to further reveal this difference and, moreover, from the side from which it can captivate the listener more strongly - that is, from the side of life-giving and lightness (the latter). “The New Testament,” he says, “is not difficult, and bestows great grace.” If, when speaking about Christ, he puts forward especially what belongs more to His love for mankind than to His dignity, or what belongs to both together, then all the more should he speak so when reasoning about His covenant. So, what do the words “the letter kills” mean? Previously he said that one covenant was written on tablets of stone, and the other on hearts of flesh. But it seemed to him that such a difference was not yet great, and therefore he added that the former covenant was written in letters and ink, and the new one in the Spirit. But since this difference could not yet fully excite his listeners, he finally points out something that could inspire them - namely, that “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” 3. What does this mean? Under the (old) law the sinner is punished; and here (in a new way) the sinner resorts to baptism and becomes righteous, and having become righteous, he comes to life and is freed from the death of sin. The law, if it catches a murderer, condemns him to death, and if grace overtakes the murderer, it sanctifies and revives him. But what am I talking about the killer? The law also seized and stoned him who was gathering wood on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32-36). This is what it means: “the letter kills”! On the contrary, grace catches countless murderers and robbers, and, washing them with the waters of baptism, frees them from their former evils. This is what it means: “The Spirit gives life”! Whoever the law catches, it makes him dead from the living; and grace makes a criminal alive from a dead one. “Come to Me,” she says, “all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I,” she does not say, “I will punish you,” but “I will give you rest” (“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”) (Matthew 11:28). In baptism, sins are buried, former iniquities are erased, a person comes to life, and all grace is imprinted on his heart, as on a tablet. So, think how great is the advantage of the Spirit, when His tablets are more excellent than the first, when He shows something higher even than the resurrection itself. Indeed, the death from which He frees is much more dangerous than the first death, and as much more dangerous as the soul is superior to the body, and natural life is sustained by the life that the Spirit gives. If He can give this higher life, then much more can He give the lower; The prophets also gave this last one, but never the other one, because no one can forgive sins “except God alone” (Luke 5:21). But the prophets could not communicate the lower life without the same Spirit. And not only is it amazing that the Spirit gives life, but also that He has given others the power to give life. “Receive the Holy Spirit” (“Receive the Holy Spirit”), says (the Lord) (John 20:22). For what? Was it impossible without the Spirit? God says this to show that (the Spirit) has the highest authority, the same royal essence and the same power. That’s why he adds: “Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; Whosoever you retain, they will retain them” (“Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven them; and whose sins you retain, they will be held”) (John 20:23). And so, since (the Holy Spirit) gave us life, we will preserve this life, and we will not return again to the former deadness. “Christ... dies no more... For that He died, He died once only to sin” (“Christ... dies no more... For even if He died, I died only to sin”) (Rom. 6:9-10). And he does not want us to always expect salvation only from grace: otherwise we will be deprived of everything; He wants something to be brought in from our side as well. Let us take care to bring something in, and preserve the life of the soul. And what the life of the soul consists of, you can learn from the life of the body. We call a body alive when it is in a healthy state. When it is relaxed and has disordered movement, then although it apparently lives and moves, such life is worse than any death. Also, if (a person) does not say anything sane, but utters words characteristic of madmen, and sees objects incorrectly, then again the one who has such a body is much more worthy of pity than the one who died. So the soul, if it has nothing healthy, if, for example, it looks at gold not as gold, but as something great and important, if it does not think the least about the future, but crawls down and does what it should not do, such a soul, even if it seemed to be alive, has died. How do we know that we have a soul? Is it not from actions characteristic of the soul? But if she does not do what is natural for her, then has she died? If, for example, she does not care about virtue, but steals the property of others and commits lawlessness, then why can I say that you have a soul? Is it because you walk? But this is also characteristic of irrational animals. Is it because you eat and drink? But animals also eat and drink. Is it because you stand upright and on two legs? But from this I see more that you are a beast in human form. In fact, when in everything else you are similar to a beast, and differ from it only in your upright position, then by this you only outrage and amaze me even more, and I, looking at you, would rather consider you a monster. If I saw a beast speaking a human language, I would not say for this alone that he is a man, but for this very reason I would consider him more strange than other animals. So, how can I know that you have a human soul? When you kick like a donkey, when you are vindictive like a camel, when you bite like a bear, when you are predatory like a wolf, when you steal like a fox, when you are cunning like a snake, when you are shameless like a dog - how can I know that you have a human soul? Do you want me to show you a dead and a living soul? Let us turn again to the ancient men, and, if you wish, imagine the rich man who lived in the days of Lazarus, so that we can find out what the death of the soul consists of. That this rich man had a dead soul is clear from his deeds. He did nothing to show that he had a rational soul; but just ate, drank and had fun. 4. There are still the same unmerciful and cruel people today. And they, like this rich man, have a dead soul - because they have killed in themselves all the warmth that comes from love for others, and their soul is deader than a soulless body. But the beggar was not like that: he shone as if he had ascended to the very top of wisdom. Constantly struggling with hunger, and not having even the most necessary food, he did not utter a single blasphemous word against God, but endured everything generously. And this is an important matter of the soul, and even the strongest proof of its strength and health. When such virtues are not visible in the soul, it is a clear sign that they have disappeared due to its deadness. Shouldn't we, tell me, call dead that soul which, when the devil attacks it, beats it, torments it, gnaws it, tramples it, does not feel all this, sleeps like the dead, and does not mourn the plunder of its property: the devil torments it, but it remains motionless, like a lifeless body, and does not feel it. When the soul does not have the fear of God and concern for its salvation, then it necessarily becomes such, and even worse than any corpse. The soul, like the body, does not turn into rotten liquid, into dirt and dust, but, what is even more disgusting, into drunkenness, into anger, covetousness, into vile love, into criminal desires. If you want to see even more clearly the vileness of a vicious soul, then cleanse your soul, and then you will clearly see how disgusting a defiled and unclean soul is. Now you cannot see this because when we remain with the habit of impurity, then we do not feel it; but when we begin to feed on spiritual verbs, then we will understand how great this evil is - spiritual impurity, although for many it seems indifferent. I will not talk now about Gehenna; but, if you like, let’s look at the vicious person still here on earth, and not at the one who does vile things, but who only says vile things - how ridiculous he is, how much he offends himself first of all, and how he, like someone vomiting mud from his mouth, makes himself disgusting. If the stream is so disgusting, then think how disgusting the source of this mud must be: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). But I don’t only grieve for this, but even more for the fact that some people don’t even think it’s shameful. This is where all evil multiplies, that is, when we sin, and yet we think that we are not sinning. So, do you want to know how great an evil it is to speak shamefully and shamefully? Look how those who listen to you blush from your shamelessness. Indeed, what could be worse and more contemptible than a person who shamelessly swears? Such people include themselves in the category of buffoons and dissolute women. Or rather, dissolute women have more shame than you. How can you teach your wife chastity when with your shameless eyes you incite her to go into debauchery? It is better to spew rottenness from your mouth than foul language. If your breath smells bad, then you do not touch the common meal; but when there is such a stench in your soul, tell me, how do you dare to approach the mysteries of the Lord? If someone took an unclean vessel and placed it on your table, you would beat him with sticks and drive him away; Tell me now, don’t you really think of angering God when at His table (and our lips are God’s table, when we partake of the sacraments of the Eucharist) you bring the most vile words from any unclean vessel? And how could it be otherwise? Nothing angers Him, the Most Holy and Purest, more than such words; nothing makes people so arrogant and shameless as when they speak and listen to such words; nothing upsets the nerves of chastity so easily as the flame kindled by such words. God has put fragrance in your mouth, and you put words in them that are more stinking than any corpse, killing the very soul and making it insensitive. In fact, when you revile someone, it is not the voice of the soul, but of your anger; when you speak shamefully, it is not she who says so, but your recklessness; when you slander, it is hatred speaking; when you deceive, this is a matter of covetousness: all this does not belong to the soul, but to the passions and illnesses of the soul. Just as corruption does not belong to the body itself, but to death and the passions living in the body, so these vices belong to the passions that have entered the soul. If you want to hear the voice of a living soul, then listen to what Paul says: “Having food and clothing, let us be content with these. It is a great gain to be godly and content” (“Having food and clothing, we will be content with these. Now there is great gain in godliness.”) (1 Tim. 6:8, 6). Also: “to me the world is crucified, and I to the world” (“to me the world is crucified, and I to the world”) (Gal.6:14). Listen to what Peter also says: “I have no silver and gold; but what I have, that I give to you” (“I have no silver and gold: but I am the Imam, this I give to you”) (Acts 3:6). Listen to Job, who thanks God and says: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (“The Lord gave, the Lord took away”) (Job 1:21). These are the words of the living soul, which expresses in them the power and action that belongs to it. In a similar way, Jacob said: “And he will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear” (“If the Lord gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear”) (Gen. 28:20); Joseph also said: “How can I do this great evil and sin before God?” (“How can I create this evil verb and sin against God?”) (Gen. 39:9). But that is not what that drunken and frantic wife said when she said: “lie with me” (“lie with me”) (Gen. 39:12). So, having learned all this, let us be jealous of the living soul and flee from the dead soul, so that we may thus receive future life, which may we all be worthy of, by grace and love for mankind (our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen). You might be interested in: