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The Pastoral Epistles of Saint Paul
Talk by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), part 22, Ephesians 4:17-5:33
November 8, 2022
 
Topics include: 
(1) Futility of mind: refusal to recognize and understand the spiritual reality of life and to use the mind for deeper levels of prayer, but instead giving it over to the passions; 
(2) Being renewed in the spirit of your mind, i.e., repentance; 
(3) The old self (a false self created by our mind in bondage to the evil one and passions) vs. the new self (created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness); 
(4) Individualism vs. Personhood: we are not individuals but members of one another. Our network of relationships (family, Church, workplace, friends) defines our personhood. The Church supports and builds these relationships. Modern, urban life has warred against this network of relationships and personhood and led to serious alienation; 
(5) On anger: God gave us anger to reject Satan and the passions. We must exorcise our anger with one another and live as a loving community together, one that rejects selfishness and actualizes our unity and community in Christ; 
(6) The Christian ideal of personhood values each one for who they are, not on the basis of what they can produce or consume. Modern society treats people as economic units, who have skills that can be plugged into a position "temporarily". Its labeling (Black, White, Male, Female, Republican, Democrat, ...) leads to depersonalization, alienation, despair, and nihilism; 
(7) We need to accept God's providence towards us in terms of family and gender ... these are under attack from the postmodern liberal establishment; 
(8) our task is to love one another as Christ loved us, self-sacrificially. God puts basic bounds on our relationships that enable us to live with respect for one another in a God-centered community. Modern "morality" tries to break down these bounds of respect, e.g., in its support for homosexuality. This "morality" is self-destructive. The Church must stand as the conscience of society since society has largely silenced its own conscience; 
(9) Covetousness, which is idolatry: desire for things that become our gods, persons, or things which we seek and love the most. E.g., some people imagine that having a spouse will "save" them, trying to replace something that only God can do; 
(10) On debauchery and sobriety: being under the influence of a substance leads to loss of sobriety ... to forgetting God and losing self-control ... to sinful behaviors; 
(11) Marriage and its basis in mutual self-sacrificial love and respect. Love and respect must go together.