Lesson 18 A SOTM Christ s teaching on a Christians Relationships & Commitments and the Importance of Good Works Part I

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1 Lesson 18 A SOTM Christ s teaching on a Christians Relationships & Commitments and the Importance of Good Works Part I In the Sermon on the Mount Your Son has laid out for us the path to heaven. It is a path that demands a holiness of heart and a firmness of character. It is not an easy path but it is a glorious path and its destination is our true home. To tread this path without stumbling requires both spiritual abandonment and intellectual knowledge on the part of the faith filled disciple, for we must not only trust completely on Christ to lead the way but we must understand where we are going and how we must get there by living and understanding the Sacraments and teachings of our Catholic faith. Guide us now, most beloved Holy Spirit, as we pray in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. "Love without truth is blind - truth without love is empty." Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, April 2006, from the Mass prior to the concave which elected him Pope Benedict XVI "But the LORD's kindness [hesed = faithful covenant-love] is forever, toward the faithful from age to age. He favors the children's children of those who keep his covenant, who take care to fulfill its precepts." Psalms 103:17-18 The connecting thread that runs through chapter 7 of Matthew's Gospel is that of relationships. Jesus has taught on a Christian's character, on a Christian's influence in the faith community and in the world, on the responsibility of the Christian to lead a righteous, holy life and on the destructive force of ambition and self-glorification. Now He will concentrate, in the conclusion of His homily, on a Christian's relationships and commitments: 1. Matthew 7:1-5: to our brothers and sisters in the faith community in whom we may discern a "splinter", and to whom we have a responsibility to help and not to judge. 2. Matthew 7:6: to a group of people designated as "dogs" and "pigs", who in their animal nature refuse a share in the Kingdom. 3. Matthew 7:7-11: to our heavenly Father to whom we are commanded to pray in confidence. 4. Matthew 7:12: to everyone in general with the "golden rule" as the guide in our attitude and behavior towards them. 5. Matthew 7:13-14: in our relationship with our fellow pilgrims who in this earthly exile enter with us through the Narrow Gate and walk the more difficult and less traveled Narrow Path to heaven. 6. Matthew 7:15-20: in our encounter with false prophets who we are to recognize and avoid. 7. Matthew 7:21-27: and finally in our relationship with Jesus as our Lord and Savior, whose teaching we are commanded to faithfully commit ourselves and to unswervingly obey. Please read Matthew 7:1-6: Our attitude to our brothers and sisters. Although Jesus has called us to a standard of "perfection" in Matthew 5:48, "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect", He understands that this is not a perfection that we are likely to achieve in this life, nor does He anticipate that the Christian community as a whole will be perfect. The paradox of the Church is that she is the sinless Bride of Christ who is full of sinners. He knows that within each individual faith community and within each Christian family there will at times be disharmony and disunity. In this passage Jesus directs how Christians should behave in the community toward a fellow Christian who has fallen into error and toward others who have fallen into sin. In cases of disharmony Jesus forbids two actions and encourages a third in how Christians act and react to other Christians and to "our neighbor" who is now identified in the New Covenant as everyone with whom we come into contact in our walk of faith.

2 Question: In cases of disharmony Jesus forbids two actions and encourages a third in how Christians act and react to other Christians and to their neighbors outside the faith community. What are they? Answer: 1. The Christian shall not judge the sinner [7:1] 2. The Christian shall not be a hypocrite [7:5] 3. The Christian shall be a brother/sister to fellow Christians [7:3, 4,&5], and to his neighbor. Note: the Greek word for brother or brother's in these three verses is the word adelphos, which means "from the womb." This is the only word used for "brother" in the Greek New Testament; therefore, when certain of Jesus' kinsmen are referred to in the New Testament as "brothers" of the Lord it cannot be assumed the meaning is "blood-brothers" born from Mary. In Hebrew and in Aramaic there was no distinction between kinsmen who were siblings or cousins or even "brothers" within the Covenant [see Matthew 12:46-49 and 13:56 and compare with Matthew 23:8; Acts 1:16; 2:29, 37; 21:17, 20; and 22:1 where the only word used is adelphos]; covenants create families and everyone within the covenant is a kinsman. When Scripture refers to the "brothers" of Jesus, the Church has always taught that these "brothers/adelphos are kinsmen who are either cousins or half-brothers/sisters. [see NIV Concordance and Strong's Concordance]. Question: He commands us to "stop judging that you may not be judged"? Remember the rule in correctly interpreting a Biblical passage: Scripture must be studied in light of other Scripture; interpretation must not conflict with or contradict other Bible passages nor can interpretation conflict with the doctrine of the Church passed down to us through the Apostles and interpreted by their successors, the Magisterium. What doesn't Jesus mean in this passage concerning judgment? Answer: He can't mean that we never judge. Jesus is not suggesting that civil law courts be suspended nor does He mean that we shouldn't critically judge sin or that we should ignore faults in others that are harmful to themselves and to the community. In Matthew 18:15-20 Jesus will address the steps one needs to take within the faith community when a brother or sister sins [either in a sinful act or a false teaching]. He does not want us to refuse to judge between truth and error or between good and evil. Jesus' teaching during this entire homily is based on the assumption that the Christian disciple should use his/her critical powers to discern between righteous and unrighteous behavior and then to avoid unrighteous behavior: St. Paul writing to the Church at Corinth concerning problems with sexual immorality within the community advised: "I have written to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people--not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you." 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 In this Corinthians passage Paul is addressing our responsibility to judge sins within the Covenant family.

3 Question: What does Jesus teach on this subject in Matthew 18:15-20? What steps are we to follow when a "brother" or "sister" has fallen into error? Answer: 1. Go to the person within the community who is in error and tell him his fault. 2. If he listens, be reconciled with him, but if he does not listen take others along and speak to him a second time so that you have witnesses to the discussion. 3. If he refuses to listen or mend his ways take the problem to the Church, meaning first the priest or possibly the Bishop. 4. If he refused to listen even to the Church then the person is to be considered outside the fellowship of the community. In the 4 th and final case, the Church may impose the redemptive judgment of excommunication. To separate a covenant believer from the Sacraments is a last measure to attempt to bring that person back into communion with God and fellowship with his covenant brothers and sisters. In 1 Corinthians 5:1-3, St. Paul makes a similar demand for excommunication of an unrepentant sinful brother or sister and in his letter to the Church in Rome and in his letter to the Church in Thessalonica he warns the faithful concerning members of the community who have gone astray into false teaching or immoral behavior: "I urge you, brothers, be on your guard against the people who are out to stir up disagreements and bring up difficulties against the teaching which you learnt. Avoid them. People of that sort are servants not of our Lord Christ, but of their own greed; and with talk that sounds smooth and reasonable they deceive the minds of the unwary." Romans 16:17-18 "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we urge you, brothers, to keep away from any of the brothers who lives an undisciplined life, not in accordance with the tradition you received from us" and "My brothers, never slacken in doing what is right. If anyone refuses to obey what I have written in this letter, take note of him and have nothing to do with him, so that he will be ashamed of himself, through you are not to treat him as an enemy, but to correct him as a brother." 2 Thessalonians 3:6, We are responsible for the conduct of those within the Church; those outside the Church are to be disciplined by God [1 Corinthians 5:13] and by the civil authority. Question: What is the significance of Matthew 18:18? Compare this verse to Matthew 16:19b. Answer: With the exception of the plural form of the verbs "bind" and "loose", this passage is almost identical with Matthew 16:19b: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." In the Matthew chapter 18 passage Jesus is giving the same authoritative power to bind and loose that he gave to Simon- Peter, the Vicar of His earthly Kingdom [see Isaiah 22:20-25], to the leadership of the New Covenant Church. This interpretation is supported by the fact that the Greek word ekklesia, or the "called out ones" [k(q)ahal in Hebrew], which we translate into English as "the Church," only occurs in the Gospels in these two passages in Matthew 16:18 and in 18:17. There are many examples in Jewish literature of this same binding and loosing imagery and in those cases the references are to the giving of authoritative teaching and the imposition of the ban of exile from the community [excommunication] or the lifting of such a ban. Jesus will repeat the declaration of this power in John's Gospel in Resurrection Sunday to the Apostles assembled in the Upper Room in John 20:22-23.

4 Question: What then does Jesus mean when He tells us not to judge? Do we or do we not have a duty to judge between right and wrong and between good and evil? Answer: If we do not judge between what is good and what is evil how can we strive to "... be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" Matthew 5:48? After all, isn't the search for holiness the primary purpose in our lives? Perhaps the key word is "judge". We are to assess sin and then critically examine the consequences of sin, but we are not to judge the person committing the sin. That is a judgment reserved for God. St Paul wrote to the Church in Rome and applied the teaching of Jesus in this passage in Romans 14:4: "Who are you to pass judgment on someone else's servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand." The point is we can critically analyze and judge actions but we cannot judge hearts and motives - only God can judge the intent of a human heart. Question: But if we do judge the behavior of a person, whether for proper or improper motives, what warning does Jesus give us? Answer: If we judge a person we too will fall under judgment and be closely examined for the same sin in our own lives. If we take on the responsibility of judge then we cannot plead ignorance if we fall into the same sin; in fact, we will be judged more harshly. Jesus' command not to judge, therefore, is not a command to be ignorant or blind but a plea to be merciful because there for the grace of God we might also tread. Father Luis de Leon writes in his commentary on the life of Job, "God measures out according as we measure out and forgives as we forgive, and comes to our rescue with the same tenderness as he sees us having toward others." [Quoted from the Navarre Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, page 80]. Jesus is telling the Christian to be neither judge nor hypocrite and in verses 3-5 Jesus tells another little parable contrasting specks of dust with large wooden beams. There is the saying that "it takes a thief to know a thief" and "there is no honor among thieves." In other words, the sinner is the first to suspect another of the same sin. In this parable Jesus exposes human hypocrisy as the reason we should not judge others. Not only are we not qualified to judge because we are fallible humans but because we are fallen humans. It is our fallen nature and our concupiscence, our own tendency to sin, that disqualifies us. In mercy and in humility we should help our brother or sister to remove the "speck" of sin from their lives and in gratitude look to our heavenly Father to forgive the log of sin in our lives. In St John Chrysostom's homily on this passage he writes: "Correct him but not as a foe, nor as an adversary exacting a penalty, but as a physician providing medicines." And St. Josemaria Escriva wisely advises us "To criticize, to destroy, is not difficult; any unskilled laborer knows how to drive his pick into the noble and finely-hewed stone of a cathedral. To construct: that is what requires the skill of a master." [The Way, page 456]. Then in Matthew 7:6 Jesus makes a strange comment about dogs and pigs. There are, He tells us, people who behave like dogs and pigs. The wild packs of dogs who roamed the trash dumps were despised as were the gentiles who lived such immoral lives, and so gentiles were usually given the label "dogs". Pigs, of course, were "unclean" animals to the righteous Jew; pigs wallowed in filth like a sinner wallows in sin. We are not to judge the intent of sinner's heart but we must not ignore their sins and faults when they act like dogs and pigs. St. Peter, perhaps thinking of this passage in Matthew 7:6, would bring these two animals together in his letter to the universal Church in two proverbs in a teaching concerning those who turn away and abandon the teaching of Christ: "What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them, 'The dog turns back to his own vomit, and the bathed sow returns to wallow in the mire.'" [2 Peter 2:22]. The point being that unbelievers, who reject the gift of rebirth and eternal life and possess the physical animal life instead of the spiritual life, will return to their old sinful and immoral habits and should therefore be avoided.

5 Question: But what does Jesus mean when He tells the Christian (1) not to give what is holy to dogs and (2) not to throw our pearls before swine? Hint: what is "holy food" and to what does Jesus compare a pearl in Matthew 13:45-46? Answer: 1. "Holy food" to the Old Covenant people was food offered in sacrifice to Yahweh that the faithful or the priests were permitted to eat. With the exception of a holocaust or whole burnt offering, all the sacrifices were eaten either by the priests and their families or by the covenant community as in the case of the Passover sacrifice and the Toda sacrifices. A member of the covenant would never give such food, even the scraps, to the unclean dogs. The Church fathers taught in this passage "that which is holy" referred to the Eucharist and that the unbeliever, not discerning the nature of the sacrament as the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ would distain the holy gift and therefore should not be allowed to partake of the sacrament. The Didache adopts this interpretation: "Let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, but those baptized into the name of the Lord; this too, the saying of the Lord is applicable: 'Give not that which is holy to the dogs.'" [The Didache, 9.5] 2. Nor would any sensible person give pearls to pigs. Pigs, not appreciating their value, would probably destroy the pearls and might even in their wrath assault the giver. The pearls may be linked to Jesus' later parable of the "Pearl of great value" in Matthew 13:46 in which the pearl is the Kingdom of Heaven or by extension, the Gospel message of salvation. But we are commanded to actively and indiscriminately share the message of salvation with unbelievers so Jesus could not be telling us not to waste the Gospel on sinners. But perhaps the "swine" aren't simply the sinners or unbelievers but those who have persistently and belligerently rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation, preferring to remain "unclean" like swine and dogs and the Christian apostates of St. Peter's teaching in 2 Peter 2:22 [see quotation above]. Question: Later Jesus would send these same disciples out on their first mission to share the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. What are His instructions to them concerning the rejection of the Gospel message and what bearing might that instruction have on this passage in Matthew chapter 7? Please read Matthew 10: Answer: Later when Jesus would send the disciples on their first missionary journey He would instruct them in Matthew 10:12-14 "As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words'go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet." Whenever a covenant believer crossed the boundary between gentile territory and the Holy Land he was to shake the contaminated dust of the gentile pagans from his feet. In Matthew 10:12-14 Jesus was telling His disciples for those who reject the Gospel message, to do the same'shake their dust off your feet for they have rejected the holy gift of salvation. St. Paul also followed this rule in his missionary work. On his first missionary expedition with his fellow disciple Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas took the Gospel message to the Jews in the Synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia, which is today located in Turkey. This Greek culture city is not the same Antioch which was home to the important Christian community of Antioch, Syria; a community which was founded by Christians who left Jerusalem after Stephen's martyrdom, which was Pastored by St. Peter for 7 years before his founding of the Church in Rome, and which sent Paul and Barnabas on their 3 missionary expeditions. When the Jews of Antioch in Pisidia rejected the Gospel message and later incited the whole city to forcefully drive them out, Paul and Barnabas "shook the dust off their feet against them" and traveled on to the next city [see Acts 13:13-45]. Perhaps the "dogs" and "swine" in this passage in Matthew chapter 7 are those like the people of Antioch who have a fierce contempt for the Gospel, and for those who persist in anger and unbelief Jesus is saying, do not strive to continue sharing the good news of salvation but turn and walk away.

6 Please read Matthew 7:7-12: Jesus teaches about the effectiveness of our prayers to the Father and our obligations to others: It is natural that Jesus should move in His homily from the relationship of the Christian with brothers and sisters within the faith community and the relationship with others to the relationship of the Christian with God the Father. He wants us to understand that living our Christian duty of righteous behavior to others is much too difficult for us without the divine grace of our heavenly Father. Addressing the effectiveness of prayer to the Father Jesus does not put any restrictions on prayer. St. Jerome commenting on this passage notes: "It is written, to everyone who asks it will be given; so, if it is not given to you, it is not given to you because you do not ask; so, ask and you will receive" [Jerome, Commentary of Matthew, 7]. Even though prayer is infallible, we are not infallible and sometimes the answer to our prayers is "no" or "be patient" because: 1. our personal dispositions are not righteous, or 2. what we have asked for is not a righteous request, or 3. now is not the time for us to receive such a petition. Jesus has already warned us against hypocrisy in prayer and has already given us His own model prayer in the Lord's Prayer. Now He encourages us to pray by giving us some commands and some very loving promises. Question: In this passage Jesus gives 3 direct commands in connection to how we should pray; what are they? Answer: Ask, seek, and knock. Question: What are the 3 promises we are to expect if we follow these commands? Answer: The promise is expressed in three statements: "everyone who asks receives", "the one who seeks finds" and "to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." COMMAND: Ask Seek Knock PROMISE: "everyone who asks receives" "the one who seeks finds" "to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Question: What door? See Matthew 3:13-17 and Revelation 3:8, Answer: The door to heaven and eternal life which had not been opened until the coming of the Christ: "I know your works (behold, I have left an open door before you, which no one can close)." "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him and he with me. I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne." Revelation 3:8, "After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him." Matthew 3:16

7 Question: Jesus illustrates His promise in another parable in Matthew 7:9-11 of a child coming to a father with a request, something with which everyone hearing the sermon can relate - everyone having been either a child or a parent themselves. What are the contrasts in this parable? What is the relationship between the bread and the stone and the fish and the snake? Hint: the fish is a scale less fish, a barbut. Answer: The contrasts are between a stone and a round loaf of bread, between a snake and the scale less Galilean fish called a barbut, and between the unrighteous father and the heavenly Father: Contrast of the parable Loaf of bread Scale less Fish Heavenly Father Stone Snake Unrighteous father The stone and the round loaf of bread; the smooth snake and the smooth fish, are somewhat similar to the other in shape or substance but one is obviously better than the other. The point is even the unrighteous know the difference between what is good parenting and what is not good so can't you trust your Heavenly Father to give you the best gift when you pray, even if you don't know yourself which gift is best? It is interesting that the force of this parable lies in the contrast rather than in the comparison between the Father who is God and the human father. Jesus acknowledges that even the unrighteous can perform good acts when He make this statement: "If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him." Question: Why does He call His listeners "wicked"? Answer: It is because even when humans are doing good and following nobler instincts like good parenting, even then humans cannot escape the designation "wicked" because since the Fall of our original parents and our inherited tendency to sin, that is what we are in the family of Adam, the "wicked" who are lost in original sin and who have inherited the tendency to sin. It is only when we are reborn as God's children that, through His sanctifying grace that we can live as "good", holy sons and daughters of God. Question: How does Jesus sum up the teachings of the Law of Moses and the teachings of the Prophets, in other words, the core teaching of the entire content of Sacred Scripture as it addresses our obligation to others and the love we should show them in Matthew 7:12 [also see Luke 6:31]? Answer: In this verse, which has come to be known as the "Golden Rule," Jesus sets the standard of behavior for Christians: "to do to others whatever you would have them do to you." Actually in the literal Greek this rule is prefaced by the Greek word oun, meaning "therefore", or "so", and indicating that this rule refers back to the previous verse and implies that if God the Father is good to all His children who seek Him in prayer, then His children must exhibit the same goodness to others. It is a fact that God's own love is one of the "good things" He gives us through God the Holy Spirit in answer to our prayers. Such love is certainly beyond human will or understanding and can only be lived in the Christian life through the divine grace of God our Father.

8 This rule, however, is not to be interpreted superficially as a "tit for tat" obligation in which we do a certain good to another with the expectation that they do the same or one better for us in return. Instead the obligation is that we should do what is good unconditionally and in this way we serve God and bring His justice to our fellow man. In Tobit 4:5-6 the saintly father Tobit instructs his son: "Through all your days, my son, keep the Lord in mind, and suppress every desire to sin or to break his commandments. Perform good works all the days of your life, and do not tread the paths of wrongdoing. For if you are steadfast in your service, your good works will bring success, not only to you, but also to all those who live uprightly." Question: How does Jesus define this rule of Christian conduct again in John 13:34-35? Answer: John 13:34: "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Note: Biblical critics point out that this "rule" of conduct is not unique to the New Testament and can be found in similar forms in the writings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, in the writings of the Greek Stoics, in the Book of Tobit in the Old Testament [see 4:15], and even in the Jewish Talmud. However, these similar rules are always expressed in the negative and not in the positive command used by Jesus in Matthew 7:12, which is more demanding; the other literary examples of this rule only require inaction whereas Jesus' command is to actively "do good" [i.e. Rabbi Hillel: What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else. This is the whole law; all the rest is only commentary." Talmud: Shabbath 31a]. This final section of Jesus homily in verses is composed of a series of antitheses which contrasts the choice between living in obedience to the teachings of Jesus and going one's own way: The Narrow Gate/Path verses the Broad Path The False Prophets verses the True Disciple The Wise Man and the House Built Upon The Rock verses the House Built on Sand and the Fool Please read Matthew 7:13-14: The Narrow Gate and Narrow Path verses the Broad Path: From the beginning of God's relationship with man, through the gift of free will, man has always had the choice between two paths: to travel the path of obedience to God or to go one's own way. Psalms 1:6: "The LORD watches over the Way of the Just, but the Way of the wicked leads to ruin." In fact, in the early Church, before the name "Christian" was applied to believers at the Church of Antioch in Syria, the followers of Jesus were referred to as the followers of "The Way" [see the Didache, article 1]. In this teaching there are 3 definite, inescapable choices each of us must make. The choice between: Two ways or paths: The hard, less traveled way which is entered through the narrow gate, and the easier, more popular wide path. Two gates: The gate leading to the easy way or path and the narrow gate leading to the hard way. Two destinations: Eternal damnation or eternal life. Question: What key word is given as a command as well as an invitation? Answer: "Enter!"

9 Question: Who or what is the gate and the path [or way]? See John 10:7-9 and John 14:6. Answer: Jesus the Messiah ["the Christ" from the Greek]. Question: How "narrow" is the gate that leads to the narrow, less traveled path? See Matthew 19:24 [also found in Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25]. What does Jesus tell us about this narrow door in Luke 13:24? Answer: For some of us it can be as narrow as the eye of a needle! In Luke 13:24 Jesus says: "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough." We cannot force our way into heaven for Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" John 14:6. Question: What contrast is Jesus making in this passage? How does free will enter in to our decision? What is the inescapable choice each of us must make? Answer: Everyone must choose between two paths in life; the choice is entirely ours. The wide path is the way of sin. It seems appealing at first and calls for no standard of conduct. It is the easier, and therefore the more traveled path, but it leads to eternal punishment. The other choice is the narrow gate and a less traveled, harder path, but this path leads to eternal salvation. Question: What makes the less traveled, narrow path harder? What is the faithful Christian who chooses this path carrying across the threshold of the Narrow Gate? See Matthew 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; 10:21; Luke 9:23; and 14:27. Answer: He carries the Cross of Jesus of Nazareth. Question: What is it that the righteous Christian leaves behind before traveling the more difficult terrain of the Narrow Path? What is it you won't need or won't be helpful to you on this lifetime faith journey? Answer: When one travels a difficult path it is necessary to divest oneself of all unessential baggage. In this case divest yourself of materialism, pride, self-centeredness and hypocrisy. The metaphor of the two paths is also found in the Didache in Articles 1-6. Notice the references to Scripture passages as you read these instructions from the first catechism: "Two Ways there are, one of Life and one of Death, and there is a great difference between the Two Ways. Now, the Way of Life is this: first, love the God who made you; secondly, your neighbor as yourself: do not do to another what you do not wish to be done to yourself. The lesson of these words is as follows: bless those that curse you, and pray for your enemies; besides, fast for those that persecute you. For what thanks do you deserve when you love those that love you? Do not the heathen do as much? For your part, love those that hate you; in fact, have no enemy..." Article 1-3 "The Way of Death is this: First of all, it is wicked and altogether accursed: murders, adulteries, lustful desires, fornications, thefts, idolatries, magical arts, sorceries, robberies, false testimonies, hypocrisy, duplicity, fraud, pride, malice, surliness, covetousness, foul talk, jealousy, rashness, haughtiness, false pretensions, the lack of the fear of God. It is the way of the persecutors of the good, haters of the truth, lovers of falsehood; of men ignorant of the reward for right living, not devoted to what is good or to just judgment, intent upon not what is good but what is evil..." Article 5 "See that no man leads you astray from this Way of the Teaching, since any other teaching takes you away from God. Surely, if you are able to bear the Lord's yoke in its entirety, you will be perfect; if you are not able, then do what you can..." Article 6

10 Questions for discussion: Question: What does St. Paul identify as fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:16-17 that will be harvest of right conduct from the righteous disciple? Question: What instruction does Jesus give us concerning correction of a brother or sister within the faith community? What are the 3 levels of correction and if those measures fail what is the final solution? Keep in mind that the final judgment is meant to be a final measure in order to bring about reconciliation and redemption. How would you go about carrying out such a correction or have you ever had such an experience that you would like to share? See Matthew 18: Question: What does sound teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ produce as opposed to false teaching according to St Paul in 1 Timothy 1:4-5; 4:7; 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 2:16-18, 23; 3:16-17; Titus 1:11; 3:9; and in Jude verses 3-4, 16-25? Question: We are encouraged to look for righteousness and love in our teachers and to reject the unrighteous and unloving. But to these moral tests we must add a doctrinal test to ensure that the teacher's message is in accord with the original apostolic instruction passed from Christ to them to their disciples, the first Bishops of the Church and down to us in the Magisterium today. How does the Apostle John encourage us to discern true teaching from false in 1 John 2:22-24; 4:2-3, 6; and 2 John verses 7-9? Question: In the lesson I told you that the Fathers of the Church were fond of repeating this truth: "Born once, die twice; born twice, die once." What did they mean by this statement?