Notes for25 April 2018

Paul always behaved respectfully towards people who observe the norms and rules of his religion. But, on the other hand, in the church communities, there was in those days a lot of people, who " did not distinguish days ", the heathen, and in fact, expressing simply in modern language, laic people, for whom no religion in itself was interesting.

How it was necessary to act here? Indeed, such a relation towards religion caused to religious people, at least, the embarrassment. But Paul, as seen, does not hurry to support them. And it will hardly surprise us, if we understand the motives that guided the apostle. Paul was himself of course a religious person, he speaks about himself "as the Pharisee of the Pharisees ". But he doesn’t absolutize at all his own religion. And there are reasons for that. If the religion in itself could be the salvation, if it could open to its followers the way in the Kingdom, the apostle, probably, would have behave differently towards it.

But he understands perfectly that, if it was like that, Christ should not have come to us to save us. And if religion does not save, if it is a human thing, then it should be treated consequently, as a human thing. If there is in the church people, for whom religion is important, this looks their consciousness, and of course, the apostle was far from fighting with whoever it is for religion. But he understood so perfectly all the dangers, which brings the religion to the spiritual life. And one of the main dangers was just the absolutization by religious people of their religion, as the only possible and only acceptable form of Christian life.

Such an absolutization pushed away not only the non religious people, it distorts the very sense of Christianity, which with this approach turned into a kind of new religion, thus emasculating and losing its spiritual sense. And Paul is firmly against - not the religion as such, but the absolutization of any religion, including that, of which he himself was carrier. There was only one way to avoid such an absolutization: leaving the choice of religion to every member of the church. So that each chooses for himself the most appropriate form of life in the Church, and therefore in the Kingdom.