Back in 1943, my mother, who sincerely loves the Lord, and her fiancé decided to get married. And suddenly, to their great surprise, many presbyters, out of fear of the Soviet authorities, refused to perform the wedding. But soon, by the grace of God, a pastor was found who was not afraid for his life and agreed to conduct this ministry. It was the presbyter of the Khabovichi community - Rogoza Sergei Kuzmich.
In those difficult times for the entire Soviet people, the persecution of believers intensified every day. In fairness, it must be said that among the various segments of the population there were different people, including among the partisans.
And in 1944, on the feast of the Annunciation, a group of partisans from the village of Rukhovichi, Kobrin district, went straight to the house of brother Sergei. On that day, he was at home with his entire large family: his wife and five daughters, the youngest of them, Olechka, was only 8 weeks old. Even from afar, he noticed people moving in the direction of his house. Sergei entered the house, kissed his little daughter and hid in his shed. The partisans entered the yard, searched the house and the shed, but did not find him anywhere. After a thorough search, they decided to go into the neighbor's house, the owner of which they knew well, because his son Kuzma was also a partisan. When asked if he had recently seen his neighbor, Sergei Rogoza, he confidently replied: “Look for him in the barn: he is there!” Soon a decision was made, and Yuri Lazarchuk took an incendiary cartridge out of his pocket and fired at the door of the shed where the hay was stored. The building immediately caught fire. Presbyter Rogoza tried to get out of the burning shed, crawled to the doors, but could not open them on his own, the partisans did not respond to his cries for help. Roman Subotka showed special cruelty in those minutes together with Yuriy Lazarchuk.
Sergei Kuzmich was burned alive when he was only 29 years old. Without a father-breadwinner, five children were left in the house. The charred parts of Sergei's body were collected in a coffin and they wanted to bury him in the cemetery, but the partisans protested and did not allow this to be done. For two days the coffin stood at the gates of the church. People's indignation grew stronger every day. “Whatever the person, is it possible to do this? He lies in a coffin for two days and is not allowed to be buried,” the villagers said. The dissatisfaction of the people had an effect, and after some time the partisans nevertheless gave permission for the burial of Sergei Rogoza in the village cemetery ... ..
Years have passed. The lives of those who took part in the events taking place on that terrible day ended very sadly. Sergei Rogoza's neighbor, the same one who had betrayed him that day, fell seriously ill and was bedridden. Once in winter, the stove, which had served the owner for many years, failed. The fire from it spread to his bed, the flames instantly engulfed the entire house. He failed to get out of the fire. Some time later, in Leningrad, in the Neva River, with a stone around his neck, they found his son - that same partisan Kuzma. Roman Subotka and Yuri Lazarchuk did not live to old age. Yuri's son, Nikolai, also almost burned out during a fire in the house, but miraculously survived. After this incident, he lived for a short time and died.
In the Word of God, in the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, it is written: “Do not repay evil for evil to anyone, but seek good in the presence of all people. If possible on your part, be at peace with all people. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God.
For it is written: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” This sad story once again confirms the power of the Word that the Lord himself speaks! //
Nikolai Gelement
Asks MichaelAnswered by Vasily Yunak, 29.08.2010
Michael writes:
Please comment on this passage: Is it possible to understand "If possible on your part" in such a way that there are situations when such an opportunity may not be? Isn't WWII just such a situation?Greetings Brother Michael!
"do not repay evil for evil to anyone, but seek good before all men. If possible on your part, be at peace with all people. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God. For it is written: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. So, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink: for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" ().
By carefully reading this text, as well as the previous texts in this chapter, you may find that there is only one conditional command with the word "if", and all the rest are unconditional, written in the imperative mood. That is, the unconditional commands in this passage are the following: "do not repay evil ...", "do not avenge yourself ...", "feed the enemy ...".
But let's look at this one conditional command: "If possible on your part, be at peace with everyone." I will give as an example other words of the Apostle Paul, related to a different area, but similar in their circumstances: " if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she agrees to live with him, then he must not leave her; and a wife who has an unbelieving husband, and he agrees to live with her, must not leave him. ... If an unbeliever wants to get divorced, let him get divorced; brother or sister in such cases are not related; the Lord called us to peace"(). Here we are also talking about peace, and there are also two sides here. But in this example, you can see that there are cases when one side wants peace, and the other does not. What to do in this situation? The answer is simple: as far as possible on your side, be at peace. And if the other side does not want peace on any terms? Yes, then it is not possible to be at peace, but for your part, follow other unconditional commands: do not repay evil for evil, do not take revenge yourself, feed the hungry enemy...
Do you see that this text does not in any way make an exception to the Christian principle? It only reinforces our obligation to strive for peace with all our might.
Blessings!
Vasily Yunak
Read more on the topic "Interpretation of Scripture":
Don't avenge yourself
From the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, we receive clear biblical instructions on how to respond to unfair treatment.
Pavel knew this topic inside and out. Before his dramatic conversion during his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road, Saul (as Paul was then called) persecuted every Christian he could get his hands on. So it was a major specialist in the field of unfair treatment of people. Saul was full of hatred and resentment towards Christians, which is why the Scripture says that he "tormented the church, entering into houses and dragging out men and women, and gave them to prison" (Acts 8:3). Saul inspired the crowd as they stoned to death Stephen, who became the first martyr. Then, during his journey to Damascus, God shone a blinding light on Saul so that he fell to the ground. The Bible tells us that at that time he "breathed threats and murder upon the Lord's disciples" (Acts 9:1).
But very soon after meeting Jesus, he experienced firsthand what it meant to be persecuted. After his first sermon and a strong testimony in which the apostle claimed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Jews decided to kill him. Therefore, Paul had to get out of Damascus in a basket in which the disciples of Jesus put him and let him down from the city wall. Later, Saul (then called Paul) summed up the various types of persecution he suffered as an apostle of the gospel:
From the Jews five times was given me forty blows without one; three times I was beaten with sticks, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent night and day in the depths of the sea; I have been many times on journeys, in dangers on the rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from fellow tribesmen, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the desert, in dangers on the sea, in dangers between false brothers, in labor and in exhaustion, often in vigil, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and nakedness. In addition to extraneous adventures, I have a daily gathering of people, caring for all the churches
(2 Corinthians 11:24-28).
Like this. This man could write a book about injustice and persecution. In fact, he wrote it. Hear what an expert inspired by the Holy Spirit has to say about injustices:
Do not repay evil for evil to anyone, but look after good before all people. If possible on your part, be at peace with all people. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God. For it is written: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”
(Rom. 12:17-19).
Did you understand? Paul, after all the insults and insults that he endured while serving the Lord Jesus Christ, makes the following statement: "Do not repay evil for evil to anyone."
If I were to read this verse to you in one of my meetings, I would ask you to loudly acknowledge your agreement by saying, “Amen!” Since I cannot look you in the eye and make sure you are listening carefully, I implore you to slow down and try to understand what the Word of God is telling you in this passage. If you are tired or your eyes are closed, go have a cup of coffee! If you really want to properly respond to cases of unfair treatment, you must understand this principle!
Paul states that when we are wronged or hurt, we should not think about our rights and should not want to settle scores with the offenders. In fact, at every opportunity we should strive to restore peace in our relationships with other people.
Do you remember the old expression "water off a duck's back"? The idea is that we should be calm about everything that With happens to us. We should not try to resist, restore justice or "swing" our rights.
Have you ever met people who just can't keep quiet when something goes wrong? If someone tries to skip the line in the store, such people immediately shout: “Hey, you there, don’t you see that there is a line here?” They can throw such a sparkling glance at the offender that a fire can ignite around from the high temperature of their indignation around.
But if we want to be obedient to the command "do not repay evil for evil," then we should not react in this way.
Then Paul explains to us why we should not strive to justify and defend ourselves. "Do not avenge yourselves, beloved... For it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'"
Here it is, the first important key to understanding how to rise above all injustices - from small insults to the biggest betrayal. By faith we understand and accept the idea that our heavenly Father has promised to make things right for us, but only if we commit the matter to His hands. He takes full responsibility for restoring justice - not you, and not me, but only Himself.
These words of Scripture are not a suggestion or a recommendation. That's an order! When God speaks, He does not speak because silence needs to be filled with words. God does not engage in petty and empty talk, He speaks seriously! When He says something, He speaks with knowledge and authority!
Over and over throughout the Bible, the Lord reminds us that we should not take responsibility for doing justice when we are hurt. Here are some examples of what God has said on similar occasions.
Do not say: "I will repay evil"; Leave it to the Lord and He will keep you
(Prov. 20:22).
I have vengeance and recompense when their foot is shaken; for the day of their destruction is near; soon will come what is prepared for them
(Deut. 32:35).
Do not say: "as he did to me, so I will do to him, [I, the Lord] will repay a man according to his deeds"
(Prov. 24:29).
We know the One who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord." And again: "The Lord will judge his people"
(Heb. 10:30).
You see? In the flesh, we do exactly the opposite thing - we often look forward to getting even with offenders. But this wrong. God commands us to give Him the opportunity to restore justice. God's people will do wrong, if he tries to avenge himself. And everything will be just if God Himself will avenge His people.
From the book The Origin of the Society of the Future author Laitman Michael1.4.2 Correcting ourselves and the whole world through ourselves Question: We say that the most important thing is preparation for some kind of action. How can we prepare ourselves for each night so that we can properly receive...? We cannot properly prepare for "every night." The man, who
From the book Secrets of the Russian Word author Irzabekov VasilyUnderstanding oneself Overcoming the many crisis phenomena of the current period of Russian history is impossible without the spiritual and moral purification and uplift of society, without relying on classical and folk, Russian culture and the culture of peoples that has stood the test of time
From the book Ascetic Words author Sirin IsaacWord 8 about the fact that from approaching them negligence and relaxation reign in a person, and he is filled with all kinds of impure passion; and about keeping oneself from intimacy with the young, so that the mind is not defiled by obscene
From the book 1115 questions to the priest author PravoslavieRu website sectionWhy does the Gospel say that one must love one's neighbors as oneself, and in another place - that one must deny oneself? hieromonk Job (Gumerov) To harmonize these two passages of the Holy Gospel, it is necessary to precisely define the content of the two key concepts “love” (Matthew 22:39) and
From the book I'm Not Guilty! by John Townsend From the book of writings author Sirin IsaacWord 8 about the fact that from approaching them negligence and relaxation reign in a person, and he is filled with all kinds of impure passion; and about keeping oneself from intimacy with the young, so that the mind is not defiled by obscene
From the book Ladder, or Spiritual Tablets author Ladder JohnTesting Yourself How to test your actions daily. .Testing ourselves and comparing our life with the life of the holy fathers, we find that we have not yet corrected anything. .After testing ourselves in the virtues and passions, we find that in the first we are insufficient, and in the second
From the book Explanatory Bible. Volume 1 author Lopukhin Alexander13. And they warned Tamar, saying, Behold, your father-in-law is going to Tamna to shear his cattle. 14 And she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil, and having closed herself, sat down at the gate of Anaim, which is on the road to Tamna. For she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she was not given to him as a wife. 15. And Judas saw her, and
From the book Explanatory Bible. Volume 5 author Lopukhin Alexander15. I have seen enough of everything in my vain days: the righteous perish in his righteousness; the wicked live long in his wickedness. 16. Do not be too strict and do not expose yourself too wise: why should you destroy yourself? Don't be too hard, literally: don't be too righteous. In these
From the book Explanatory Bible. Volume 9 author Lopukhin Alexander15. Since you say: "We have made an alliance with death and made an agreement with the underworld: when the all-destroying scourge passes, it will not reach us, because we have made lies a refuge for ourselves, and we will cover ourselves with deceit." The prophet puts into the mouth of his opponents words full of
From the book of teaching author Kavsokalivit Porfiry11. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this - for what would be a reproach to my name! I will not give my glory to another. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this - for what a reproach would be to my name! Strongly emphasizes the idea of 9 tbsp. and makes it even more obvious and clearer. Now, instead of
From the book The Book of Happiness the author Lorgus Andrey17. And He put on Himself righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and he put on the garment of vengeance as a garment, and covered himself with jealousy as with a cloak. 18. According to the measure of retribution, according to this measure He will reward His adversaries with rage, His enemies with revenge, He will reward the islands with due. 19. And
From the book Volume V. Book 1. Moral and ascetic creations the author Studit Theodore12. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14:11; 18:14). See notes on 18:4 for an explanation of the verse. “Do you see,” says Chrysostom, “how He leads the listener here to deeds that are completely opposite to pride? He not only forbids seeking
From the author's bookIt is not good to pinch oneself and wind up (plittis) oneself to become a monk. Whoever wants to succeed in monasticism, for him everything must be open - all possibilities (and live in the world and marry), and he must make a free decision, driven by one divine
From the author's bookRecipe for myself Am I happy myself? Do I smile in public? Once a photographer took a few of my pictures, and I saw how sad I myself was. I looked at myself: tension, some kind of sullenness, a wrinkle on my forehead from a gloomy expression on my face ... It turned out that the face testifies
From the author's bookTo purify oneself - to receive God into oneself Then, all rejoice and be of good courage against the fierce devil, for his swords have become impoverished to the end (Ps. 9:7), and we have been able to youthfully against him and constantly trample on his head. To the extent that you purify yourself, to that extent you receive God into yourself. Therefore
We are accustomed to expect something sublime from Holy Scripture. We often say that this book is about God's Love for us, and teaching for man how to love God and others. But while reading the Old Testament and the Psalms, we continually stumble upon human expressions and words that lead our hearts into confusion. For example, in Psalm 17:38, David openly wishes evil for his enemies: “ I pursue my enemies and I overtake them andI will not return until I destroy them. Or we read in Psalm 54:16: May death come upon them; may they go down alive hell." David asks God for very strange things that seem inadequate to us: “ And by Your mercy, destroy my enemies anddestroy all who oppress my soul, for Iyour slave(Psalm 142 :12).
Firstly, the Psalter is the prayer of a believing soul talking to God, and in this conversation we hear different moods, we see different situations and circumstances in which the praying person was ...
Secondly, such words are simply honesty and openness before God.
We are all angry with someone, and we know that this is not good, so when we come to God in prayer, we usually dress our anger outwardly in polite clothes. Angry at a brother (sister), we often say as if with a challenge: “God bless you,” but at the same time inside we believe that we are right, but here he is ...
But look, this person tells God exactly what he experiences inside himself, not hiding anything behind the tinsel of outwardly beautiful words. He freely expresses his annoyance that he wishes his enemies...
The Bible tells us not about ideal people, but about real people, with their inner depravity...
The psalmist does a very important act: he brings everything that is in his heart in prayer to God. Why is he being so honest? The answer is unequivocal, so that God will sort out his situation and punish the guilty... If he wanted to take revenge on his own, he would do it... He does not take revenge himself, but only prays to God for revenge...
I must say that such an approach is already a huge progress for those times when it was considered right not only to punish any offender yourself, but to do it in front of everyone, so that no one else would want to offend you. " An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth…"
Romans 12:19 reveals an important lesson for you and me. “Do not avenge yourself, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God. For it is written: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord."
These words were even taken by L. N. Tolstoy as an epigraph to his novel Anna Karenina. The husband did not cause any harm to his wife who left him, but he gave everything into the hands of God. We all know the end of this story...
God addresses these words to us believers so that we give up independent revenge on our enemies and entrust it to God.
In these biblical words, God says to man: do not hurry. You do not know all the circumstances, you do not know the motives of a strange soul, you do not want to listen to evidence in its favor and you cannot judge its actions. But I, says God, can do it. My judgment is righteous, and if I consider that the insult inflicted on you should be avenged, then I will repay the offender for his sins.
Precious ones, we need to learn to tell God everything honestly about what is happening to us inside, and ask Him to resolve the situation not just in our favor, but in favor of justice ... But at the same time, you must know that it may turn out that you are guilty, and not the one you thought of ... Therefore, before asking God for judgment and revenge, it is better to ask first of all about yourself:
“Am I right”, “God see if I am not on a dangerous path ..”
We always stand for justice when it is violated in relation to ourselves. But when we are unfair, we often do not even notice it. And this is also mentioned in the Psalms: Oh my God! if Iwhat did you do if there is a lie inmy hands if Ipaid evil to those who were with me inworld...then let the enemy pursue my soul andovertake, let him trample inearth my life(Psalm 7 :4-6). That is, no double standards.
Well, how not to remember the words from another Psalm: “... a crowd of wicked people surrounded me, they pierced my hands and my legs. All my bones could be counted; Athey look andmake a spectacle out of me; divide my garments among themselves andlots are cast for my clothes. But You, Lord, do not depart from me; my strength! Hurry to help me!"(Psalm 21:17-20). It is no coincidence that the words of this particular psalm are remembered by the evangelists when they talk about the Crucifixion. I would like to draw attention to the fact that in these words of pain that a person is experiencing there are no calls for revenge, the sufferer only asks for help. Probably, the fact is that when you are really very hurt and scared, you no longer think about revenge, but only about salvation ...
Tatyana Sakharova
From the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, we receive clear biblical instructions on how to respond to unfair treatment.
Pavel knew this topic inside and out. Before his dramatic conversion during his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road, Saul (as Paul was then called) persecuted every Christian he could get his hands on. So it was a major specialist in the field of unfair treatment of people. Saul was full of hatred and resentment towards Christians, which is why the Scripture says that he "tormented the church, entering into houses and dragging out men and women, and gave them to prison" (Acts 8:3). Saul inspired the crowd as they stoned to death Stephen, who became the first martyr. Then, during his journey to Damascus, God shone a blinding light on Saul so that he fell to the ground. The Bible tells us that at that time he "breathed threats and murder upon the Lord's disciples"
(Acts 9:1).
But very soon after meeting Jesus, he experienced firsthand what it meant to be persecuted. After his first sermon and a strong testimony in which the apostle claimed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Jews decided to kill him. Therefore, Paul had to get out of Damascus in a basket in which the disciples of Jesus put him and let him down from the city wall. Later, Saul (then called Paul) summed up the various types of persecution he suffered as an apostle of the gospel:
From the Jews five times was given me forty blows without one; three times I was beaten with sticks, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent night and day in the depths of the sea; I have been many times on journeys, in dangers on the rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from fellow tribesmen, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the desert, in dangers on the sea, in dangers between false brothers, in labor and in exhaustion, often in vigil, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and nakedness. In addition to extraneous adventures, I have a daily gathering of people, taking care of all the churches (2 Cor. 11:24-28).
Like this. This man could write a book about injustice and persecution. In fact, he wrote it. Hear what an expert inspired by the Holy Spirit has to say about injustices:
Do not repay evil for evil to anyone, but look after good before all people. If possible on your part, be at peace with all people. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God. For it is written: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”
(Rom. 12:17-19).
Did you understand? Paul, after all the insults and insults that he endured while serving the Lord Jesus Christ, makes the following statement: "Do not repay evil for evil to anyone."
If I were to read this verse to you in one of my meetings, I would ask you to loudly acknowledge your agreement by saying, “Amen!” Since I cannot look you in the eye and make sure you are listening carefully, I implore you to slow down and try to understand what the Word of God is telling you in this passage. If you are tired or your eyes are closed, go have a cup of coffee! If you really want to properly respond to cases of unfair treatment, you must understand this principle!
Paul states that when we are wronged or hurt, we should not think about our rights and should not want to settle scores with the offenders. In fact, at every opportunity we should strive to restore peace in our relationships with other people.
Do you remember the old expression "water off a duck's back"? The idea is that we should be calm about everything that happens to us. We should not try to resist, restore justice or "swing" our rights.
Have you ever met people who just can't keep quiet when something goes wrong? If someone tries to skip the line in the store, such people immediately shout: “Hey, you there, don’t you see that there is a line here?” They can throw such a sparkling glance at the offender that a fire can ignite around from the high temperature of their indignation around.
But if we want to be obedient to the command "do not repay evil for evil," then we should not react in this way.
Then Paul explains to us why we should not strive to justify and defend ourselves. "Do not avenge yourselves, beloved... For it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'"
Here it is, the first important key to understanding how to rise above all injustices - from small insults to the biggest betrayal. By faith we understand and accept the idea that our heavenly Father has promised to make things right for us, but only if we commit the matter to His hands. He takes full responsibility for restoring justice - not you, and not me, but only Himself.
These words of Scripture are not a suggestion or a recommendation. That's an order! When God speaks, He does not speak because silence needs to be filled with words. God does not engage in petty and empty talk, He speaks seriously! When He says something, He speaks with knowledge and authority!
Over and over throughout the Bible, the Lord reminds us that we should not take responsibility for doing justice when we are hurt. Here are some examples of what God has said on similar occasions.
Do not say: "I will repay evil"; Leave it to the Lord and He will keep you (Proverbs 20:22).
I have vengeance and recompense when their foot is shaken; For the day of their destruction is near, and what is prepared for them will soon come (Deut. 32:35).
Don't say, "As he did to me, so I will do to him; [I, the Lord] will repay a man according to his deeds" (Prov. 24:29).
We know the One who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord." And again: "The Lord will judge his people" (Heb. 10:30).
You see? In the flesh, we do exactly the opposite thing - we often look forward to getting even with offenders. But it's not right. God commands us to give Him the opportunity to restore justice. God's people will do wrong if they try to avenge themselves. And everything will be just if God Himself will avenge His people.
