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The General Epistles of Saints James, Peter, John, and Jude, Part 10: I John 3:1-4:11
Talk by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen)
March 5, 2024

Topics include:
(1) Our identity in Christ: We are children of God and called to be like Him. We are made in the image of God, that is, having the potential to be united with God and become like Him in every way. We are now moving towards being like Him; 
(2) We are not of this world. Our identity in Him takes us beyond this world; Christ is resurrected and ascended, on the Cherubic Throne. He shows us His glory and shares it with us. "Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" ... There has always been an ascetic element to Christianity; 
(3) On sin: Sin is a betrayal of our true calling to be like God. When we sin we deny that calling ... we betray and deny our true identity. When we sin we are acting as if we don't know God, betraying God and ourselves, forgetting God and entering into our own little world ... what the Fathers call forgetfulness; 
(4) On battling sin: It's a process for our Baptism to work itself out in us: for us to accept it, purify ourselves, cooperating with God. We are given grace by God to battle the old ways of sin in our lives; 
(5) On the Augustinian / Roman Catholic doctrines of "Original Sin". The Orthodox view is that we sin, like Adam, but we are not guilty of Adam's sin, only our own sins. We also reject the Calvinist idea of Total Depravity, that the image of God is extinguished within us; 
(6) Christian life is a struggle, against sin, to actualize the potential within us to become like God. We liken ourselves to God by loving our neighbor. Hatred is of the devil ... He who does not love his brother abides in death; 
(7) Our culture is possessed by selfishness and has forgotten what it means to sacrifice ... one can see true self-sacrifice more clearly in many other countries, e.g., in Russia --- the Babushka sharing all she has in her pantry with you for a meal. Consider the shocking words of St John Chrysostom: "The extra coat in your closet you took from the back of the poor." "If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the Church door, you will not find Him in the Chalice". Nevertheless, while we can be convicted by our stingy hearts, at the same time God knows our good intentions (v. 20). But we must strive to live in unconditional, self-sacrificing love, laying down our life for our brother, as Christ did for us; to exorcise selfishness so we can love unconditionally; 
(8) On mission and the reception of our preaching: If they are of God, and we are truly of God (our battle), then they will hear us. Orthodox evangelists always lead people to a church; 
(9) On saying "In Christ": by our Baptism, Chrismation, the Holy Mysteries, and living by faith, we are "In Christ". When we say "In Christ," we are not boasting, but saying who we want to be and are striving to be; 
(10) On the biblical types of love: Agape, Stoige, Eros, Phileo. Agape is the love that constitutes the Church: not an emotion, a thought, or a feeling, but a spiritual, unconditional acceptance of others and a willingness to lay down our lives for them. The Fathers also talk about a divine eros: our desire for God and His for us. The highest expression of phileo are profound, deep friendships: "my other, my друг"; deep, intimate self-sacrifice for another. These types of love build the body of the Church. We come to know God by how we love one another; 
(11) On propitiation vs. expiation in 4:10: the word is hilasmos, expiation, meaning the doing away of our sin. "Propitiation" is the Latin word, and many Latin theologians were lawyers. Augustine did not read Greek. Substitutionary atonement (Anselm) is not a Apostolic doctrine.