The standards of morality were taught by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ says in the Gospel of Matthew: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And Love your neighbor as yourself. “
Within the framework of the “The Church and the Law” series of interviews, of Iravaban.net talked about the standards of morality with Father Vahan Arakelyan, the pastor, sacramental priest of the Zoravor Surb Astvatsatsin Church of the Ararat Patriarchal Diocese.
According to the clergyman, when a human being is connected with his Creator with all his being, with his consciousness, with all his love, and every divine word, message is important to him and he lives accordingly, he naturally shows love to his fellow man, to his friend, as he loves himself. And the basis of morality is love, which God has taught us. A loving person will never allow himself to be immoral, will never do evil, and will never act against us. And love must be perfect, it must be absolute.
– What is the standard of Christian morality and how does it fit into the context of the Church?
– The Church is a godly structure in the world. And the Church preaches and brings the doctrine brought by Christ, and the role of the Church is very important in the life of every person, because through the Church we understand, we perceive the divine truths that Jesus Christ taught us. Following the life of Christ, we see absolute love, attention to man. And in this sense we can say that Christ was the embodiment of absolute love, which enabled man to know true love, divine love, and also said that every human being is the bearer of that divine love. And when every person is able to have those Christian values in his life through the Church and express them in life, he will become the bearer of the standards of Christian morality.
– Is a person born moral, or does it instill in him the environment, family, society?
– Man is born moral; he is born kind and innocent. Except for the Adamic sin that every person brings with him into the world at birth and bears that sin until he is baptized. After baptism he is freed from Adamic sin. Then, living in the world, he takes sins, various actions, habits, thoughts, consciousness, occupations, which turn him away from God.
– Has the society moved away from those values?
– Society is always the bearer of those values. We cannot absolutely say that our society today, yesterday or tomorrow has departed from these values. These values are always present in our society. We are Christians, we are a society that follows God and we live by these values. It is just possible for some people to deviate from their core values over time and find themselves on a path that does not lead to God.
– When immoral phenomena is legalized, how does the Church fight against it and does the Church have the right to fight against it?
– The Church has fulfilled its mission in the life of our people for centuries. When we look at the life and process of the Church in the pages of history, we will see that the Church has always remained the bearer of its principles. The principles that God has given. And the Church, by teaching its principles, the truths of the faith, tries to keep people away from delusions, sins and mistakes. And I guess this is the best struggle – to teach a person, to teach what is good and what is bad.
– How does the church maintain the rule of moral law? Are there any punishments?
– The church is always in a morality process. The mission of the Church is to preach love in human life. When we look at the biblical messages, we will see that their violation, non-fulfillment, is a departure from faith, and to turn away from faith means to be immoral. Faith helps us to realize the standards of Christian morality and to stay away from sin.
– Times change, do the standards of morality change with it?
– Times do change, but the standards of morality never change, because God never changes, in His essence, in His power, in His saving mission.
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