Беседа 30

Hebrews 12:11–13. Any punishment at the present time seems not to be joy, but sadness; но после наученным через него доставляет мирный плод праведности. Therefore, strengthen your drooping hands and weakened knees, and walk straight with your feet, so that what is lame will not be turned aside, but rather be made straight. 1. Those who take bitter medicines first experience an unpleasant feeling, and then feel the benefits. Such is virtue, such is vice: in the latter one experiences first pleasure, and then sorrow; in the first there is first sorrow, and then pleasure. And yet both are unequal; It is not at all the same thing to experience sorrow first and then pleasure, or to experience pleasure first and sorrow afterwards. Why? Because in the latter case, the expectation of future sorrow reduces the present pleasure, and in the first, the expectation of the upcoming pleasure greatly weakens the present sorrow, so that sometimes even no pleasure is felt there, and no sorrow here. However, not only in this respect is there a difference, but also in another. Which one exactly? The fact is that they are unequal with respect to the duration of time, but one is less and the other is much more. A similar (difference) is even more significant in spiritual objects. This is where Paul takes his consolation; he again refers to the general opinion, which no one can contradict, as a general verdict, because when someone expresses a thought recognized by everyone, then everyone agrees and no one objects. Are you grieving? – говорит он; это понятно; This is always the punishment; This is where it begins. That’s why he continues: “Any punishment at the present time seems not joy, but sadness.” He said well: “it seems,” because punishment is not actually sorrow, but only seems so; and moreover, not just one punishment is like this, and another is not like that, but every one: “every punishment,” he says, “at the present time seems not to be joy, but sadness,” that is, both human and spiritual. Do you see how he refers to general opinions? “It seems,” he says, “...sadness,” therefore it is not actually. And really, from what sorrow can joy come? Ни от какой; likewise, no sorrow comes from any joy. “But afterward he brings to those who are taught the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Here he does not mean (one) fruit, but (many) fruits, thus expressing their great multitude. “Taught through him,” he says. What does it mean: “taught through him”? Those who endured and suffered for a long time. Do you see the favorable expression he uses? So “punishment” is a learning that makes a warrior strong, invincible in feats, invincible in battles. If “all punishment” is like this, then this is also the present. Therefore, we must expect good consequences from it, a pleasant and peaceful end. Do not be surprised that, although it is bitter, it bears sweet fruit; Likewise, on trees, the bark is almost tasteless and hard, but the fruits are sweet. He borrowed all this from well-known experience. If you need to expect such consequences, then why are you complaining? Why, having suffered the unpleasant, do you despair of the pleasant? You have suffered troubles that should have been endured - do not lose hope of reward. “Strengthen therefore your bowed hands and weakened knees, and walk straight with your feet, so that what is lame may not be turned aside, but rather be made straight.” He speaks as if to walkers, fighters and warriors. Do you see how he arms them, how he excites them? He says this about the very thoughts: “walk straight,” i.e. go straight without doubt. If “punishment” comes from love and kindness and leads to a good end - as he proved in deeds, words, and everything - then why are you weakening? Only the desperate do this, not supported by hope for the future. Walk, he says, straight, so that the limping person no longer becomes crooked, but returns to its previous state, because whoever walks lame increases this evil. Do you see that it is up to us to be completely healed? “Pursue to have peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). What he spoke about above in the words: “Let us not forsake assembling ourselves together” (Heb. 10:25), he expresses the same here. In temptations, nothing makes us more easily overcome and easily grasped than division. And here is proof of this: scatter a detachment (of warriors) in battle, and the enemies will have no difficulty in taking and tying them up, attacking them divided and therefore made weaker. «Старайтесь , – говорит, – иметь мир со всеми и святость» . Следовательно – и с делающими зло. He says the same thing in another place: “If it is possible on your part, be at peace with all people” (Rom. 12:18). Ты со своей стороны, говорит, имей мир, ни в чём не нарушая благочестия; and endure the evil that you are exposed to from others courageously, because patience is a great weapon in temptation. So Christ strengthened his disciples: “Behold, I send you,” He said, “as sheep among wolves: therefore be wise as serpents, and simple as doves” (Matthew 10:16). What are you saying? We are “among wolves”, and You command us to be “like sheep” and “like doves”? Yes, He says, because nothing puts those who do evil to shame as much as if we courageously endure the insults inflicted and do not take revenge either in word or in deed; this makes us wise, preparing for us a great reward, and it benefits them. But such and such has cruelly insulted you? You bless him, and see how many benefits you will gain from it: you will stop evil, prepare a reward for yourself, shame him, and you yourself will not tolerate anything bad. “Try to have peace and holiness with everyone.” What does “holiness” mean? Chastity and abstinence in married life. He who is celibate, he says, remain pure, or get married; and whoever is married, do not commit adultery, but be content with your wife; and this is a shrine. How so? Not marriage is a shrine, but marriage preserves the shrine that comes from faith, not allowing one to cleave to a harlot; marriage "honest" but not holy (Heb. 13:4); marriage is pure, but it does not bring holiness, it only does not allow one to desecrate the holiness that comes from faith. “Without which,” he says, “no one will see the Lord.” He says the same thing in his letter to the Corinthians: “Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor fools, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Indeed, how can one who has become one body with a harlot be the body of Christ? “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness arise and cause harm, and lest many become defiled by it; lest there be any fornicator or wicked man among you” (Heb. 12:15–16). Do you see how he commands everyone everywhere to contribute to the common salvation? “Train one another every day,” he says (in another place), “as long as you can say, “Today”” (Heb. 3:13). 2. Do not, he says, leave everything to the teachers, do not entrust everything to the leaders; and you can edify one another. He wrote the same to the Thessalonians: “Admonish one another and edify one another, as you also do”; and also: “Comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 5:11, 4:18). We now advise you too. You can, if you want, do more for each other; you communicate with each other more often, you know your affairs better than us, you see mutual shortcomings, you have more frankness, love and sociability; and this is not unimportant for learning, but it provides great and beneficial convenience. You can both expose and convince each other better than us. And besides, I am one, and there are many of you, and all of you, as many of you as there are, can be teachers. Therefore, I exhort you, do not neglect such a gift; each of you has either a wife, or a friend, or a servant, or a neighbor; reprove him, convince him. And isn’t it unreasonable to organize meetings and fellowships for refreshments, to have a designated day for meeting with each other, to make up for what one lacks with common means, for example, when you need to arrange a funeral, or a dinner, or help your neighbor in something else, but not to do this for the study of virtue? Let no one, I exhort you, neglect him; for this he will receive a great reward from God. Know that he who is entrusted with five talents is a teacher; and whoever has one, he is a disciple. If a student says: “I am a student, I don’t care,” and he hides this public gift of speech, which he received from God, without increasing it in the least, if he does not exhort, advise, reprove, or admonish when he can, but buries it in the ground, and indeed, the heart that hides the gift of God is earth and ashes, and so if he hides it either out of laziness or wickedness, then his words will not be justified: I I have only one talent. Did you have one talent? You should have brought at least one more, doubled the talent; If you had brought another one, you would not have been guilty. And to the one who brought two talents in addition (the Lord) did not say: why didn’t you bring five? - but awarded him the same reward as the one who brought in addition five talents. Why? Because he did as much as he could, did not indulge in laziness because he received less than the one who received five talents, and did not take advantage of the insignificance (of the gift) for carelessness. So you should not have looked at the one who had two talents; or better, it was necessary to take an example from him; just as he, having two talents, imitated the one who had five, so you should imitate the one who had two. If punishment awaits the one who owns wealth and does not give (to the poor), then the one who has the ability to exhort in any way and does not do so, does not the greatest punishment await? There the body is nourished, and here the soul; there you save from temporary death, and here from eternal death. 3. But, you say, I don’t have the gift of speech? There is no need for (special) gift of speech or eloquence. When you see a friend committing adultery, then tell him: you are doing a bad thing; Aren't you ashamed, aren't you ashamed? After all, this is a vice. But, you say, doesn’t he know that this is a vice? Of course he does, but he is carried away by lust. And patients know that drinking cold water is harmful, but they need caution. He who is possessed by passion cannot soon heal himself. Therefore, you, the healthy one, need to help heal him. If he is not convinced by your words, then watch him when he goes and hold him back; maybe he will be ashamed. But what, you say, is the benefit if he does this for me, if he is restrained by me? Don't talk too much; in advance, keep him in any way from a vicious deed; let him learn not to rush into this abyss; Whether through you or through something else he will hold on, there will be benefit from this. When you teach him not to go there, then, having calmed him down little by little, you can teach him that this should not be done for God, and not for man. Don’t try to fix everything suddenly—it’s impossible—but gradually and little by little. If you see him going to revelry and drunken feasts, then do the same here, and together ask him to help you and enlighten you if he notices any shortcoming in you. Then he will turn the reproof on himself, seeing that you also need reproof and that you are helping him not as a person correct in everything, and not as a teacher, but as a friend and brother. Tell him: I was useful to you, reminding you of useful things; and you, if you notice any shortcoming in me, restrain and correct me; If you see me angry or indulging in covetousness, stop me, curb me with your admonition. Here is friendship; This is how “a brother who helps a brother is like a strong and high city” (Prov. 18:19)! Indeed, friendship does not consist in eating and drinking together; Such (friendship) also happens among robbers and murderers; but if we are friends, if we truly care about each other, then this is exactly what we should help each other with. This is what leads us to beneficial friendship; This is what can save us from Gehenna! So, neither the one who is rebuked should be upset - we are people and have shortcomings - nor the one who reproaches should do this with mockery, with contempt, or for the sake of disclosure, but in private and with meekness; the one who reproaches needs precisely great meekness in order to win over the person being reproached - to endure painful healing. Do you not see among doctors, when they cauterize or cut off, with what meekness they apply medicine? All the more should those who reprove do so, because reproof is stronger than fire and iron and leads to irritation. Doctors try in every possible way to make the cutting calmer and as easy as possible, and in order to do so, after starting it and performing a few, they stop to give the patient a rest. This is what we should do when we reprove, so that those who are reproached do not distance themselves from us. If at the same time we had to listen to insults, or even receive blows, we should not stop. And those who undergo painful healing shout a lot against the doctors; however, doctors do not look at anything but the health of the sufferers. So here, too, you need to do everything to make the reproof bring benefit; you need to endure everything, keeping in mind the upcoming reward. “Bear one another’s burdens,” says (the apostle), “and in this way fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). Thus, both by reproaching and enduring reproof from one another, we can fulfill Christ’s economy. In this way, you will make our work easier, helping us in everything, giving us a helping hand, becoming participants and accomplices in the salvation of each other, and each of his own. Let us endure, both bearing one another’s burdens and reproaching one another, so that we may be worthy of the blessings promised to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: