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The General Epistles of Saints James, Peter, John, and Jude, Part 11: I John 4:12-5:21
Talk by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen)
March 26, 2024

Topics include:
(1) God's essence is love. His love elicits our love for one another. Through cooperation with Him, we are given strength, His energy, to love one another; 
(2) To confess Christ is more than rational --- it's a noetic response from a heart full of spiritual awareness of His presence; 
(3) The real mark of the beast is hatred and resentment. We cannot hate anyone, for that is a denial of the image of God in them; 
(4) The love of God drives out fear. There are three levels of fear: fear of punishment (slave), fear of losing a reward (employee), and fear of offending our Father's love (son). If we surrender to the love of God, fear is driven out. 
(5) More on Expiation: Christ takes on our sin and offers Himself as a sacrifice to His Father. God accepts Him as a pure lamb, thus doing away with our sins. God doesn't need to be propitiated, Propitiation is transactional, Expiation is not; 
(6) Praying (interceding to God) for the sinner is unto life for them. God will forgive them through our prayers; 
(7) The one who reaches the highest level of spiritual maturity does not sin ... he can, but he doesn't, but rather keeps himself from sin. He has united himself to God's will. Sin has been overcome in his life; 
(8) The Christian life is not about "getting saved", but a process of perfecting ourselves through the love of God ... learning to overcome the fallenness within us by synergy with God. The Christian life is not transactional, but about love and process; 
(9) Beware idolatry of the heart: how easy it is to make idols out of the things of this world, such as money or possessions or status. We must be watchful to avoid this!