{"id":6415,"date":"2020-05-25T19:51:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T09:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6415"},"modified":"2020-06-05T20:03:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T10:03:55","slug":"the-goods-of-god-and-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-goods-of-god-and-man\/","title":{"rendered":"The Goods of God and Man"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Goods of God and Man<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Fr Antonios Kaldas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original post by Fr Antonios Kaldas blog site<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cLet love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, Cling to what is good.\u201d Romans 12:9
<\/em><\/strong>I gave a talk on this verse yesterday at Sydney Uni Coptic Society and it made me think. Allow me to share some thoughts with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing that struck me most was the command for us to be ONE, to be whole. I am not speaking about a congregation or a family being united here, I am speaking about the individual not being divided against him\/herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The words are very strong: ABHOR \u2026 CLING<\/em> \u2013 there is no wavering here! My interpretation is that St Paul is asking us, \u201cWho are you?\u201d <\/strong>What kind of a person are you? What motivates you, and what moves you? What repels you and what sets your heart on fire?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main ways we define ourselves, or think about who we are, is by what we believe, what we value, or what we think to be important or true. If I try to make up a list of these values I personally hold, I wonder what they would be? Would they all fall under the category of \u201cgood\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course they would! I wouldn\u2019t hold those values unless I thought they were good \u2026 good for ME, that is. But that\u2019s not necessarily \u2018good\u2019 in the sense St Paul was talking about. For him, \u2018good\u2019 is not what any individual thinks to be good, but what God thinks to be good, and there can be a very big difference between the two, and often is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So to fulfil this verse, I have to find out what God thinks is good. That\u2019s not so hard \u2013 it\u2019s all in the Bible. What is hard is to let go of my own concept of good. A simple example: Someone annoys me really badly. My good: teach the idiot a lesson he\u2019ll never forget \u2013 he deserves it, and it will make me feel so much better. God\u2019s good: Blessed are you when men revile and persecute you \u2026 and if he strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other \u2026 do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which one I choose out of those two determines who I am. To CLING to what is good is not easy. There are many, many forces, both within and without me, that are trying to prise me away from what is good. This verse informs me what it takes to hang on: CLING!!! Hang on tight! Never let go! Never give up! If your grip slips, clamber it back on again quick!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on the other side of the coin: ABHOR!!! Hate! (yes, hate!) This is what hatred was made for \u2013 for things that are evil. We are not only allowed<\/em> to hate evil, we are commanded <\/em>to hate evil. We must hate evil. We must shun evil, and fight it and escape it with all our mind, strength, heart and soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do anything less than this is to allow oneself to be a divided person. You can\u2019t go for two goals at the same time, when they are at opposite ends of the field! You\u2019ve got to make up your mind whose side you\u2019re on, and then play for that side, aim for that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only then can love truly be without hypocrisy<\/em>. Hypocrisy comes from a divided soul. One part of me wants to say and teach nice things. Another part of me wants to practice sins. The two cannot be in harmony. I find I have become a hypocrite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Teaching of the 12 Apostles (Didache)<\/em> (2nd century AD) begins with the famous words: There are two ways, one of life and one of death: but a great difference between the two ways.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we will give the last word to Joshua: choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve \u2026 But as for me and my house, we will <\/em>serve the Lord<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original blog found at- http:\/\/www.frantonios.org.au\/2007\/10\/11\/17\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Goods of God and Man By Fr Antonios Kaldas Original post by Fr Antonios Kaldas blog site  \u201cLet love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, Cling to what is good.\u201d Romans 12:9I gave a talk on this verse yesterday at Sydney Uni Coptic Society and it made me think. Allow me to share … Continue reading “The Goods of God and Man”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[119],"class_list":["post-6415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-gods-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6415"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6460,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6415\/revisions\/6460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}