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The Pastoral Epistles of Saint Paul
Talk by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), part 43, Hebrews 3:1-5:10
September 5, 2023

Topics include:
(1) The fear of death, a potent thing that enslaves men to sin. On how to die in peace; 
(2) On persevering in faith and remaining in communion with God vs. falling into unbelief and betrayal of God, being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and worliness. Example of the Israelites who fell in the desert and failed to enter the land of promise because of unbelief; 
(3) On the Eternal Rest in the Kingdom of Heaven. We get a foretaste of this rest in the Liturgy. 
(4) On the misinterpretation of 4:12. THe subject is the Logos, the Word of God, not the Bible, as made clear by the context; 
(5) On the Priesthood ordained by Jesus Christ, and on Him being the Great High Priest, having a Priesthood not of Aaron or Levi, but of Melchizedek. On Melchizedek, who is without genealogy, a Messianic figure, an image of the Priesthood of the First Temple, and a very important .
apocalyptic figure at the time of Christ. 
(6) On Christ's humanity and on suffering: Jesus learned obedience and was made perfect (brought to completion in His logoi) through suffering. That is, He achieved the full measure of all that He was called to do. Christ had to go through that suffering to offer the perfect sacrifice to God for us. We also learn obedience through suffering, leading us to the fulfillment of God's calling for us.