Our Venerable Father Spiridon the Wonderworker, Bishop of Tremithus (337-61)
Nativity Fast
2 Timothy 2:20-26; Luke 19:37-44
Read 2 Timothy 2:20-26
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
It’s a talk that most parents have had with their children usually when they are about to set out on their own. If you are a father or mother, then you know. Watch for this, watch for that. Be careful. Some will be your good friends, and, believe it or not, there are those who will not want to be friends; they even might want to pick a fight with you. In some similar fashion, Paul is giving such advice to Timothy, who had travelled with Paul for some time, as he sets off in official ministry in the Church. Paul’s words are helpful to not only Timothy but to all Christians as in some way we all minister within the Church and outwardly to the world.
Today’s section of Paul’s letter to Timothy is a simple encouragement to clean up one’s act. Not only to reject false teaching or some mixture of it with the truth, but to grow in purity and in the truth of Jesus Christ, and in virtue, in relation to God and to neighbour. I is then that we become fitting vessels for the Lord’s work.
St. John of Damascus writes: It is clear that this cleansing is done freely, for he says, “if any man shall cleanse himself,” the converse of which rejoins that, if he does not cleanse himself, he will be a vessel unto dishonour, of no use to the Lord and only fit to be broken. (On the Orthodox Faith, 4:19)