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What is the use of owning and managing people for someone who cannot control himself? Human! Learn to control yourself first and then you will happily control people. A ruler who serves his own whims, not society, and seeks his own self-interest, and not the common good! Where are you going? To destruction! We see in the world that in response to an unjust trial there is an appeal or denunciation to the king or some other authority, and those who judged themselves are called to trial, and unjust judges are judged. So the injustices, violence, bitterness, insults that are done to poor people, and the unrighteous judgments of kings, princes, lords, shepherds and other authorities cry out to heaven, and their cries enter the ears of the Lord Almighty, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and they ask Him for judgment. Poor people, not having anywhere to find someone to hear their cry, turn away insults and violence and wipe away their tears, - to heaven to God, the Father of the orphans and the Judge of widows, they sigh and cry out: “God! You are our Creator and Lord, You are our Protector and Helper. We are in the land of poverty and our tears do not find satisfaction. Hear and have mercy on us, the poor, and wipe away the tears of Your evil-suffering creation! The strong are strong, the noble are noble, gentlemen are gentlemen, the rich are rich, judges help judges. We will not find help for ourselves anywhere. We ask you! You have been given a beggar, an orphan, and be a helper" (Ps. 9:35). The Lord sees the iniquity of the lawless authorities and judges, and their cry, like that of Sodom, comes to the Lord, and He hears the groans of His wretched people, and the Judge of all the earth judges. This is where we see the terrible executions sent to states and cities by the righteous judgment of God. We see terrible wars and bloodshed, we see pestilences. We see seducers and destructive sons and troublemakers of the fatherland, who ascribe to themselves the names of high officials and cause rebellion and harm to the fatherland. We see terrible fires, and famine, and other executions. All this is sent by God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, for the unrighteous judgments, insults and violence inflicted on poor people, as a righteous Judge and judge throughout the whole earth. But all judges and authorities will be called to the World Court. Then those who judged His people will stand before the Judge God and answer. The kings will stand up and keep their word. Princes and nobles will stand up and give their word. Gentlemen will stand up and answer. All authorities will rise up, from the highest to the lowest, and will be held accountable for unjust trials and unscrupulous and lawless acts with the people entrusted to them. Woe then will be the lawless authorities who have done evil to the people of God through untruth and torment! God will search your deeds and test your thoughts. For you, being servants of His kingdom, did not judge justly, did not keep the law, and did not walk according to the will of God. He will appear to you fearfully and soon, for the judgment on those in authority is most severe, for the little ones are worthy of mercy, but the mighty will be severely tortured (Wis. 6:3-6). Authorities, gentlemen and judges! Your wrong deeds cry out to heaven and, as it were, they denounce you to God. God hears their cry and will call you to Him for judgment. Repent, beloved, while it is not yet calling you! He sees all your deeds and all your wrongdoing, but is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). And if you don’t repent now, then you will repent then when He calls you to Him for judgment, but it will be too late and useless! Meditate on the above words of Solomon and you will find out for yourself how terrible God’s judgment will be for you. Lord, God of Powers! Restore us and show Your face bright, and we will be saved (Ps. 79:4)! Authorities! The Lord has placed you over His people and given you a sword. Cut off to them all evil from your subordinates. Like a tall tree in the middle of a low forest, so is a person in honor among vile people. The tall tree is visible to everyone from afar. Likewise, everyone sees the honor of a person who abides. The taller the tree, the further away many people see. Likewise, the higher the ruler, the more people know him and know what he does and says. A tall tree is exposed to every wind and storm and is overwhelmed by every bad weather. So the high ruler is exposed to every temptation and disaster. And the higher the ruler, the more susceptible to temptation. Not everyone finds wind on a low tree, but on a tall tree, everyone blows and shakes it from everywhere. O beloved who sits on high! Be like a tall tree that sends its roots deep into the ground and thus holds on and does not fall from the wind and storm. Deepen your faith and hope in the goodness and omnipotence of God, like an anchor in the depths of the sea. And so strengthen your heart, which is shaken from the machinations of the enemy, as from a stormy wind. Do not be afraid, although a great storm arises from here and there and blows on you. Be faithful only to your Lord, and He will hold and strengthen you with His omnipotent hand. In Christian society there is a dual power: civil and spiritual. Civil authority manages external affairs, and spiritual authority oversees what concerns the internal, spiritual state. The civil governs civil laws, and the spiritual corrects with the Word of God. Civil lawlessness and temptations of those under power are suppressed by the sword, and spiritual law, by the Word of God, the fear and judgment of God and temporary excommunication from Christian society, humbles those who live unseemly. The goal of both authorities, civil and spiritual, should be no other than the good fortune of those governed and the glory of the name of God. All power, great or small, is from God, according to Scripture: there is no power but from God (Rom. 13:1). The power was created by God, as we see, for a good purpose: 1. To avert any trouble that may occur in society. 2. To pacify the outrage, impudence and violence of daring people; to protect the innocence and gentleness of good people, as the Apostle Peter teaches that rulers are sent from the king to punish criminals and to reward those who do good (1 Pet. 2:14). And Saint Paul says: rulers are not a terror to good deeds, but to evil ones. Do you want to not be afraid of power? Do good, and you will receive praise from her, for the ruler is God's servant, for your good. If you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain: he is God’s servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil (Rom. 13:3-4). 3. To gain and preserve all well-being, both physical and mental. All power is like a head in the human body, in its society. Every society is like a living person. What is in man is power in society. The head in a person, as the seat of the mind and reasoning, controls all members and provides for them all. So the authorities must manage and provide for all their subordinates. And just as the head cares about the good condition of the entire body of the body, so it is appropriate for the authorities to care and try for every well-being of the society subordinated to itself, for it is precisely for this that it was established by God... Every ruler is elected and appointed not for his own sake, but for the benefit of his subordinates, therefore he must take care of their benefit. Therefore, every godly ruler, civil and spiritual, must be his subordinate, like a father to his children. Just as a prudent father keeps his children in fear and has mercy on them, so should the authorities act with their subjects. They must imitate the highest and beginningless Power, the Heavenly Father Himself, who punishes and has mercy on us who sin, beats and does not take away mercy, hurts and heals, saddens and comforts. The authorities should take the middle path and act with their subordinates: not allow them to live according to their will, punish those who sin, curb them with fear, and lead them to good morals, and not torture them. A ruler cannot be true and useful unless he is conscientious and reasonable. For an evil ruler, although reasonable, will act unscrupulously towards his subordinates, will not care about them, will care about himself and not about them, will seek his own self-interest and not their benefit, and so, instead of the general well-being, will cause misfortune to society. Likewise, a conscientious ruler without reason will succeed in little. For although he will care about the common good, due to impoverishment of the mind he will often do what he should and when he should, to whom and what he should do; and so, although he will carry out his work with a good purpose, it will often be to the detriment of society. However, a good ruler without wisdom is more useful to society than an evil one with his wisdom and cunning. Those authorities who care about their own self-interest and not about the general well-being do very bad things. Thus they oppose the institution of God, which the authorities institute to preserve the general well-being. All power is supplied not for its own gain, but for the sake of the integrity of society... That is what society should seek for power, for the sake of which it is supplied. But when he seeks in the wrong way, instead of his own general benefit, he brings harm to society, not benefit, and so does not create, but ruins society and, instead of a benefactor, becomes its enemy. Just as those authorities do bad things who punish and torture their subordinates immoderately and inappropriately, so do those who leave criminals of the law without punishment. This gives them a reason to commit other sins and iniquities. The thief, not punished for his lawlessness, again turns to the same lawless deed. For lawlessness, left without punishment, is nothing more than a door to other lawlessness. From there will follow the habit of sin and hardening in sin, which leads to obvious destruction. Leaving a criminal without punishment is not mercy, but inhumanity and madness, which leads even the one who has mercy to destruction. Moderation is everywhere commendable: both punishment with mercy, and mercy with justice and punishment are required from a pious ruler. This is also shown by nature, in which both excessive frost and extreme heat are harmful, but warmth through cooling and a bucket 11 dissolved by rain are beneficial. This is how society is built and prospers through moderation. Those who, through all sorts of intrigues, or through the intercession of others, or through bribes, or in any other way, seek power, do something bad and un-Christian. By this they show that they are ill either with vain love of glory, which is indecent for Christians, or with the desire for bad profit, which is harmful to themselves and to society, and thus by this quest they show themselves unworthy of power. Any power for a Christian is not peace and honor, but the greater is the cross, burdened with great and abundant labor, care and constant patience, which no one will desire. Everyone must first prepare himself and make himself worthy of the honor and title of God to wait, which happens by electing the highest and most superior authorities. Responsibilities to the authorities subordinate to them: 1. Those who are subject to their authorities must obey in everything, and obey the Lord for the sake of the Lord, as the Apostle Peter teaches: be submissive to all human authorities for the Lord's sake (1 Pet. 2:13). God made them - for God’s sake we must obey them. God commands to listen to them - for the sake of God who commands, one must listen to them. He who obeys authority obeys God, just as he who resists authority resists God's institution (Rom. 13:2). If something is commanded according to God's law, it is God's command, not man's, although men also command. 2. We must lovingly honor them as our fathers and providers. Conscience itself convinces us to love and honor those who care and provide for our benefit. Pious authorities are nothing more than seekers and guardians of the general well-being. We love and honor our fathers according to the flesh, for they gave birth to us and provide for us, much more for the pious authorities, who care and provide for us and for our fathers - they provide, I say, for us, for they provide for the society in which we also belong. For whoever uses the whole body also uses all the bodily members of which the body consists. They are God's servants, God's messengers and, as it were, God's vicegerents, who carry out the office entrusted to them by God, who lives in heaven, on earth; Therefore, as God’s messengers and servants, those sent for our benefit must be accepted and respected. 3. We must pray to God for them, to keep their lives intact and strengthen them, to protect them from all kinds of enemy slander, to enlighten and make them wise for the common good, so that they can avert everything that harms society, and do what the common well-being is created and multiplied. The general well-being depends on good and reasonable authorities. That house is in good condition, in which there is a kind and reasonable owner: so is the city in which a kind and wise mayor lives; prosperous are those people who have a good, wise and diligent shepherd; prosperous is the army that a good, skillful and diligent commander controls; prosperous is the state over which a kind, wise and zealous monarch reigns. Therefore, it is necessary for all those who are under their control to earnestly pray to God for their powers, so that they would be correct in their work, and so, with their well-being, we ourselves would be prosperous. They will ask: “What to do with the authorities who do lies?” 1. What do they do wrong, what does it matter to you? Do your part and act according to your position. For their unrighteousness they will give an answer to the righteous God, who will examine their deeds and test their intentions. For they, being servants of His kingdom, did not judge fairly, did not keep the law and did not act according to the will of God, and so on (Wis. 6:3-4 et seq.). 2. Whatever is commanded that is not contrary to the law of God, listen and obey, but otherwise do not listen, since one must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). This is what the holy martyrs did. The wicked authorities commanded them to dig the ground - they dug; carry stones - carried; to go to prison and exile - they went; bow heads under the sword - bowed; their estates were taken away from them - they were given away, and so on, they were ordered to do things that were not contrary to the law of God - they did them. They commanded me to renounce Christ and do other ungodly things - they did not listen. Do the same. If your master tells you to send any work, do it, but if he tells you to do lies: to offend, steal, lie, etc., do not listen. For this he threatens with execution - do not be afraid, for it is more fitting to fear God, who has the power to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna, than a person who kills only the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matthew 10:28). If he takes life, do not resist, for he who sacrifices his life for truth will find it in the coming century. Vedro – clear sunny weather.