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.
“But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities…. Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ( Acts 16:19- 29).
Real spiritual fruit in us can’t be imitated or faked; it is so different from our human virtues it can only be of Christ. We can see St. Paul and Silas after they had been unjustly imprisoned, beaten and left to die in a filthy jail cell, they were filled with the Spirit and sang praises in the midnight hour. In response, God loosed their shackles and threw open the cell doors with a thundering earthquake. But instead of fleeing into the night, Paul and Silas represented Christ’s compassion and love toward the trembling prison guard who suddenly had a come to Jesus at the moment. That kind of selfless and uncreated love, is a true representation of Jesus Christ.
GOD’S PROMISE FOR US, IS TO OVERCOME THE WORLD.
“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.
For let not the mouth only fast, but also the eye, and ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our bodies. Let the hands fast, by being pure from rapine and avarice. Let the feet fast, but ceasing from running to the unlawful spectacles. Let the eyes fast, being taught never to fix themselves rudely upon handsome countenances, or to busy themselves with strange beauties. For looking is the food of the eyes, but if this be such as is unlawful or forbidden, it mars the fast; and upsets the whole safety of the soul; but if it be lawful and safe, it adorns fasting.
The idea that you ended up with, which is that babies born with disabilities or Autism are condemned, is a Jewish idea not Christian. Jesus Himself demolished this idea in the Gospel of John, chapter nine, verses two and three, when the disciples asked Him about the man born blind “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” If illness and disability were the Heavenly Father’s will, Christ the Son of God couldn’t have violated the Father’s will and healed diseases. But the birth of a disabled and sick child has other natural causes that come through the parents, such as heredity, addiction, smoking, pollution, abuse of prohibited drugs during pregnancy, abuse of the body, satanic acts, and magic. God is the God of love and every goodness. There are God’s ministers today who have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as the gift of healing. God is working through His faithful ministers. He never abandons His people and those who ask Him.
When we read the Old Testament, we see that the meaning of purity was simply the washing of the body externally, refraining from eating some kinds of food, avoiding touching certain things, etc. All these rules in the old were for personal hygiene, and they were Jewish traditions. In the Gospel of Mathew, we read that the Scribes and the Pharisees clashed with Jesus over this concept and said to Him, “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread” (Mathew 15:2). Jesus answered them with the deep meaning of purity in the New Testament. He gathered the people and told them, “ Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man” (Mathew 15:10-20).
In these verses, Jesus had laid down a new definition of what is uncleanness and what is purity, which is different from what the Old Testament established for primitive people, that would help them to avoid disease and pollution through cleanliness and external washing.Jesus went into the depth of man’s entity and explained that impurity comes from the heart, the mind, and the thoughts that exude on the body and defile it. It is not consuming certain foods and drinks with unwashed hands that defile the man. Impurity comes from inside, not from outside; a sinful heart, evil thoughts, and lusts of the body are what make man impure.
The main goal of every Christian who has believed in Jesus Christ and has received Him in the Holy Spirit is to become in unity with Him and be more and more like Him each day. To be in unity with Jesus Christ means practically that you must be putting off the old way of life of which sin was in control and conforming one's thoughts and actions to the standard put forth in Scripture. “The power of sin should no longer control the way we live. The Holy Spirit should control the way we live. So don’t live under the control of sin. If you do, you will think about what the spirit wants. ….The mind ruled by the power of sin is at war with God. It doesn’t obey God’s law. It can’t. Those who are under the power of sin can’t please God.” (Romans 8: 6,7,8.)
Some people would say that nobody will ever be perfect or attain sinlessness while still on this earth. That is not true cause Jesus commanded us to be holy as He is holy. So it is a command and not a choice for a believer in Christ. To be holy and pure is the goal for which every Christian strives. The Bible makes a powerful statement regarding this in (1 Thessalonians 4:7,8) "God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives. Anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human rules but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you." And in the first letter of Peter we read “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1peter14-16).
What we should know that we will never be able to be pure by our works or by our strength, but by our will to be united with the perfect sinless One, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Grace of God given to all mankind.
Dear God,
We thank You that You indeed are powerful and loving, that out of Your glorious riches You strengthen us through Your Spirit in our inner being. We ask you for the fresh filling of Your Holy Spirit. We ask for Your power and love to fill us. We thank You that as believers we know that Christ dwells richly within our hearts through faith. We pray that You would strengthen our roots and establish our lives firmly in your love.
When the world shouts hate, help us to love. When the past won’t let go, help us to love. When the enemy taunts with lies and surrounds us with darkness, help us to love. When a relationship feels broken or we’re betrayed or rejected, help us to love. Help us to love, and to keep on loving by the power of Your Spirit even when it seems impossible or even when it doesn’t make sense. May our lives be filled with Your goodness and power, today and every day, as we walk in Your Spirit of love. In Jesus’ Name.
Amen.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
• Blessed be our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
WHY?
• BECAUSE
1- He Blessed us with every spiritual blessings IN Christ.
2- He chose us IN Christ (before the foundation of the world).
• In order for us to be able to be:
1- Holy &
2- Without blame before Him in LOVE
• HE ALSO
Predestined us to adoption as sons BY Jesus Christ TO Himself
• And this is according
1-To the good pleasure of His will,
2-To the praise of the glory of His grace,
And all this by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (JESUS).
• In Jesus Christ we have:
1- Redemption through His blood,
2- The forgiveness of sins.
• And all this is according to:
1- The riches of His grace
2-In Which He made to abound toward us
3-In all wisdom and prudence.
• Jesus having made known to us the mystery of His will,
1-According to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
2-That He might gather together in one all things in Christ, (both which
are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him) in the dispensation of the
fullness of the times.
• In Him we have:
1-obtained an inheritance,
(being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things
according to the counsel of His will)
2- That we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
• In Him you also:
3- We trusted, the gospel of your salvation “after you heard the word of
truth”
• In whom also, having believed
4-You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
“who is the guarantee of our inheritance” until the redemption of the
purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
