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The General Epistles of Saints James, Peter, John, and Jude, Part 7: I Peter 5 - II Peter 1
Talk by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen)
February 6, 2024

Topics include:
(1) Christian Leadership: Bishops are to lead their flocks by example ... leadership from within, not over and imposed on top; 
(2) Suffering: we co-suffer with Christ and our brethren. We should not despair. Suffering enables us to grow and resist the devil; 
(3) Salvation is the knowledge OF God (not about God), that is, direct noetic perception of God; God invites us to know Him. We can partake of the divine nature if we cooperate with God's grace, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of lust. This requires repentance and diligence on our part, the narrow way of following Christ; 
(4) Discussion of Election cf. ideas of double predestination, which St. Isaac the Syrian called blasphemous. Orthodox don't have an Augustinian doctrine of Original Sin. We have a positive, not negative, view of human nature.