Sunday
Matthew 17:1-9  Transfiguration of the Lord

Christ’s decease (Gr. exodus, lit. “departure”) refers to His death. Christ’s death is intimately connected to the glory of the Transfiguration, for Christ is glorified through His death. In the liturgical cycle, the Feast of the Transfiguration (Aug. 6) comes forty days before the feast of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14), showing the connection between Christ’s glory and His Cross. The term exodus reveals that Christ’s Passion is a fulfillment of the OT Passover and is the true exodus from enslavement into salvation. This revelation of divine power also confirms Christ’s upcoming death was not imposed on Him by outside forces, but was a voluntary offering of love, for no arresting soldier could withstand such glory if Christ had not consented (Mt 26: 53). In a festal hymn (called the kontakion) of Transfiguration, we sing, “Your disciples beheld Your glory as far as they could bear it, so that when they saw You crucified  they would understand that Your suffering was voluntary.”

Monday

1 John 4

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that[a] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Tuesday

17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him[b] because He first loved us.

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can[c] he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

OSB Commentary:   Antichrist is anyone who does not confess that the Son of God became man while remaining God. 4: 6 We is the apostles and their followers.  God is love   is not a definition of who God is, but rather describes His relationship to us as our Father. As the only begotten Son (v. 9) sacrificially gave Himself that we might live through Him  , so we are to give ourselves to Him and one another.What a statement of God’s mercy and grace!  How can we know God lives in us? John gives a fourfold answer: (1) if we love one another   (2) if we have been given His Spirit  ; (3) if we can confess Jesus is the Son of God  ; and (4) if we abide in the love of God .

Wednesday

1 John 5

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—ourfaith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

6 This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which[c] He has testified of His Son. 10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. 11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life,[ and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Thursday

18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself,[e] and the wicked one does not touch him.

19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

OSB commentary: Who is it that truly believes that Jesus is the Christ? Those who live in the way Christ commanded, who love others. 5: 3 How is it that God’s commandments are not burdensome? We live these commandments by faith and in God’s love, which makes them light on our fallen nature. They are hard and rough only to those who are living a sinful life. That the Kingdom of heaven belongs to those who suffer makes even suffering sweet. 5: 6– 12 By water and blood (v. 6) is a reference both to the constancy of the Incarnate Son throughout His life and to the mingled water and blood that poured from Jesus’ side (Jn 19: 34), which is a type of baptism. Similarly the Spirit, the water, and the blood (v. 8) refers to the unity of the basic sacraments: chrismation, baptism, and the Eucharist. 5: 13 When we know we have been given the gift of eternal life, we are to continue to believe and follow the Son of God. 5: 16 What about those Christians who are not living righteously? Sin leading to death is willful, continual disbelief in the grace of the Holy Spirit toward us.  Idols are either false gods or things that turn us away from God (Col 3: 5).

Friday

2 John

The Elder,

To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, 2 because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you] from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

4 I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father. 5 And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. 6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.

9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

12 Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.

13 The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen.

Saturday

OSB Commentary on 2 John

John calls himself the elder, or presbyter, which confirms that in the NT there is not always a distinction between bishops and presbyters. He is confident those who stand against the apostolic Church are in the minority. He assumes the Church is one, a true, concrete unity, and that it follows one rule of faith, whereas the unorthodox agree mainly in their rejection of this common Faith. 3 Calling Christ the Son of the Father strongly refutes the deceivers and gnostics. Jesus is the Son; the Son is by nature what His Father is, and He does what His Father does . 4– 6 False teachers were introducing new, nontraditional practices and breaking the covenant of unity based on God’s love— the heart of new covenant life. 7 The heretics here deny either Jesus’ full humanity or His full divinity (or the full divinity of the Holy Spirit). The Jews were denying Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. All these deny Jesus is our Archpriest in His human nature, and that He will come in His glorified human body to judge the dead and the living. 9 The Orthodox doctrine of the Incarnation (the doctrine of Christ) is, according to John, necessary for knowledge and communion with God. God is synonymous with the Father, but, according to the doctrine of Christ, the Son, Christ, is also God. 10, 11 It is reported that one day John went into a public bathhouse and found there the well-known gnostic heretic, Cerinthus. The apostle ran out, crying, “Let us get out of here, for fear the place falls in, now that Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside.”   The children of your elect sister most likely refers to the church from which John is writing, namely Ephesus.