The Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was born in the year 130 in the city of Smyrna (Asia Minor). He received there the finest education, studying poetics, philosophy, rhetoric, and the rest of the classical sciences considered necessary for a young man of the world.
His guide in the truths of the Christian Faith was a disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian, Saint Polycarp of Smyrna (February 23). Saint Polycarp baptized the youth, and afterwards ordained him presbyter and sent him to a city in Gaul then named Lugdunum [the present day Lyons in France] to the dying bishop Pothinus.
A commission was soon entrusted to Saint Irenaeus. He was to deliver a letter from the confessors of Lugdunum to the holy Bishop Eleutherius of Rome (177-190). While he was away, all the known Christians were thrown into prison. After the martyric death of Bishop Pothinus, Saint Irenaeus was chosen a year later (in 178) as Bishop of Lugdunum. “During this time,” Saint Gregory of Tours (November 17) writes concerning him, “by his preaching he transformed all Lugdunum into a Christian city!”
When the persecution against Christians quieted down, the saint expounded upon the Orthodox teachings of faith in one of his fundamental works under the title: Detection and Refutation of the Pretended but False Gnosis. It is usually called Five Books against Heresy (Adversus Haereses).
At that time there appeared a series of religious-philosophical gnostic teachings. The Gnostics [from the Greek word “gnosis” meaning “knowledge”] taught that God cannot be incarnate [i.e. born in human flesh], since matter is imperfect and manifests itself as the bearer of evil. They taught also that the Son of God is only an outflowing (“emanation”) of Divinity. Together with Him from the Divinity issues forth a hierarchical series of powers (“aeons”), the unity of which comprise the “Pleroma”, i.e. “Fullness.” The world is not made by God Himself, but by the aeons or the “Demiourgos,” which is below the “Pleroma.”
In refuting this heresy, championed by Valentinus, Saint Irenaeus presents the Orthodox teaching of salvation. “The Word of God, Jesus Christ, through His inexplicable blessedness caused it to be, that we also, should be made that which He is ... ,” taught Saint Irenaeus. “Jesus Christ the Son of God, through exceedingly great love for His creation, condescended to be born of a Virgin, having united mankind with God in His own Self.” Through the Incarnation of God, creation becomes co-imaged and co-bodied to the Son of God. Salvation consists in the “Sonship” and “Theosis” (“Divinization”) of mankind.
In the refutation of another heretic, Marcian, who denied the divine origin of the Old Testament, the saint affirms the same divine inspiration of the Old and the New Testaments: “It is one and the same Spirit of God Who proclaimed through the prophets the precise manner of the Lord’s coming,” wrote the saint. “Through the apostles, He preached that the fulness of time of the filiation had arrived, and that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.”
The successors of the Apostles have received from God the certain gift of truth, which Saint Irenaeus links to the succession of the episcopate (Adv. Haer. 4, 26, 2). “Anyone who desires to know the truth ought to turn to the Church, since through Her alone did the apostles expound the Divine Truth. She is the door to life.”
Saint Irenaeus also exerted a beneficial influence in a dispute about the celebration of Pascha. In the Church of Asia Minor, there was an old tradition of celebrating Holy Pascha on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, regardless of what day of the week it happened to be. The Roman bishop Victor (190-202) forcefully demanded uniformity, and his harsh demands fomented a schism. In the name of the Christians of Gaul, Saint Irenaeus wrote to Bishop Victor and others, urging them to make peace.
After this incident, Saint Irenaeus drops out of sight, and we do not even know the exact year of his death. Saint Gregory of Tours, in his Historia Francorum, suggests that Saint Irenaeus was beheaded by the sword for his confession of faith in the year 202, during the reign of Severus.
The Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, and Saint Irenaeus of Lyons are three links in an unbroken chain of the grace of succession, which goes back to the Original Pastor, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
In his old age, Saint Irenaeus wrote to his old friend the priest Florinus: “When I was still a boy, I knew you... in Polycarp’s house.... I remember what happened in those days more clearly than what happens now.... I can describe for you the place where blessed Polycarp usually sat and conversed, the character of his life, the appearance of his body, and the discourses which he spoke to the people, how he spoke of the conversations which he had with John and others who had seen the Lord, how he remembered their words, and what he heard from them about the Lord ... I listened eagerly to these things, by the mercy of God, and wrote them, not on paper, but in my heart.”
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Corinthians 15:14-15).
In a world that often feels harsh, chaotic, and full of struggle, it doesn’t take long before we find ourselves battling the feelings of overwhelm, rush, or anxiety. Many of us, in fact, have grown so accustomed to these patterns, we even start to live there, in the midst of the never-ending hurry and worry mode. It is the enemy’s trap and that is where he wants us to be. Satan is a thief and a liar. He’s an expert at finding the best ways to try to steal our energy or waste our time. But Christ did overcome the devil on the cross and he gave us His victory in the Holy Spirit. Those who accept Him and receive the Holy Spirit in them will overcome the devil’s destroying plans. They will overcome his fearful and anxious thoughts. Jesus is faithful and He did promise us to send the Comforter, The Holy Spirit. He continually offers us confident peace that can never be found in this life without Him. Asking for His help in our anxious and overwhelmed struggle, praying and allowing His Spirit to guard our hearts and minds in Him,
is the very first step to reaching new and solid ground. And though our circumstances may not change immediately, though our hearts may still be struggling, His Truth reminds us to set our eyes on Him. We must be assured today that He knows our way, He sees our battle, He hasn’t forgotten us, and He’s still at work, even in the most trying of times.
ST. BASIL ON GOOD DEEDS
“A tree is known by its fruit, a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.”
Jesus is the light of the world; He has no darkness in Himself, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8: 12). All evildoers hate the light lest their deeds should be exposed, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:19-21). Jesus does not punish man for his sins, but we are the ones who formed our destiny. God the Father loved us and sent His Son to our world to save us from the power of sin which leads to our death, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17). Jesus’ life destroyed death on the cross. He confronted all evil works of hatred, rejection, unfaithfulness, cruelty, etc. He took our death and gave us His resurrection. He gave us this overcoming power over death.
We are the ones who have chosen the ways of the devil which led us to death. Death is both cause and result of missing the way and of being separated from the life of God. God is immortal and the only source of immortality. Losing the unity with Him in His Son Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is the cause of sin and death.
So, death is not a punishment of God: it is, rather, the result of man's failure to live up to his destiny of participating in God's immortality. Death is the primary manifestation of separation and alienation from God; it is also our main source of bondage and the driving force behind individual sins. “In as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.“ (Hebrews 2: 14-15) "Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world" (Galatians 4:3).
Reading the Old Testament we can see that the word “sin” is referred simply to the "violation of the law"; and this disobedience of the law leads to punishment by God's justice. While reading the New Testament we see Jesus Christ the incarnated Word of God came to our world to reveal for us the love of God and the destiny which He created man for, which is man’s participation in His glory. God has set as the destiny of all people; participation in His Glory, and of His divine love. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 23).
God has set this as our destiny and in Christ He has made it clearly possible for us to attain it. Because of Christ Who, as true human and true God, arrived at this destiny and attained to it for all mankind, we can inherit it by choosing to strive for a life in Christ. “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (1peter1:1-5)
The New Testament is very clear in defining the word “sin”. Sin is missing the mark and the goal of our lives as Christians. What is our goal as Christians according to the New Testament? Our Goal is to live in unity with God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ & to be in His likeness. We receive and accept Jesus in us in the Holy Spirit and basing our actions in our lives on the divine life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, when we “go off the goal”, we sin.
Since the goal for which man was created is full communion with God, to partake of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4), sharing in His glory and immortality, then sin means to fall short of the destiny of participation in God. St. Paul expresses this concept of sin when he says that “who all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) that is, everyone has missed the mark and fallen short of the goal of man's destiny, which is to participate in the life and glory of God.
Jesus Christ the Son of God took our flesh from Virgin Mary to fulfill the salvation plan to all mankind. He came to save us from the grip of sin and death and not to judge us. “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Mathew 1:21), “ For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost..” (Mathew18:11), “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged...” (Hebrews1:3). He confronted the devil on the cross and all his evil power against man from hatred, rejection, unfaithfulness, sadness, fear, etc. He carried on Himself our sins and abolished the power of sin and death so that we would be able to overcome it too “who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Galatian1:4)., “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness (1Peter1:24).
Jesus came to our world not to punish and condemn us but to save us from Satan our enemy, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved,” (John 3:16-17).
He came to destroy the works of the devil in us and free us from the bondage of sin and the grip of death. He gave us the power, which is His power in the Holy Spirit, to resist the devil and overcome his temptation “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1John3:8)
We give thanks to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for his love and grace now and forevermore unto ages to ages. Amen.
O Eternal God and King of all creation, who has granted me to arrive at this hour, forgive me the sins that I have committed today in thought, word, and deed.
cleanse, O Lord, my humble soul from all defilement of flesh and spirit. And grant me, O Lord, to pass the sleep of this night in peace, that when I rise from my bed, I may please Your most holy Name all the days of my life and conquer my flesh and the fleshless foes that war with me.
And deliver me, O Lord, from vain and frivolous thoughts, and from evil desires which defile me. For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
We can perceive the word of God
only with the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit working in us
Glory to the Father, Son & the Holy Spirit
Galatians 4:3-11
“Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.”
St Paul is telling us that we were like children before knowing Christ,
WHY?
Because we were bonded under the elements of the world.
BUT WHEN
The fullness of the time had come,
1- Was born of a woman,
2- born under the law ( under the law of Moses like everybody)
WHY GOD SENT HIS SON?
IN ORDER THAT
AND BECAUSE
GOD HAS SEND THE HOLY SPIRIT OF HIS SONS JESUS CHRIST
TO WHERE?
NOW AS SONS WE CAN CALL HIM
THEREFORE
BUT
THEN
For after we KNEW THE TRUTH & GOD’S SALVATION PLAN FOR US
AND
We became SONS of God in Jesus Christ’s
TO WHAT?
TO THE WEAK AND BEGGARLY ELEMENTS ( i.e. TO THE LAW)
IN WHICH
LIKE WHAT?
I.E. ALL THE OLD LAW ‘S WORKS
