“No one who is born of God will continue to sin”, as John wrote in one of his epistles. It is a wonderful phrase, especially when one recalls that it is almost impossible to live a perfectly ideal life. Pastor Dmitry Vladykin dealt with this complicated theme at the Sunday meeting of the church “Philadelphia” on June 14.

In Old Testament times relationship between people and God was based on the law given to Moses. After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our righteousness is entirely in Him. No one could obey the whole law and it means that nobody can be called a righteous man. Only by grace of God we can be cleaned of our sins. Paul adds to John’s statement in Romans 6:11: “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus”. We find the explanation in verse 8: “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him”. Accepting this and focusing efforts on following God we will gradually stop making mistakes and stumble.

Senior pastor Pavel Ivanovich Zhelnovakov continued the topic that he had started the previous Sunday — the conflict of two kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and kingdom of this world. He spoke about the things that prevent us from trusting God, fill our mind and lead away from the essential. These are constant fears and anxieties that Jesus told about (Matthew 6:24-34). We shouldn’t think of it as of a call to laziness and carelessness. God wants us to work, think about our body and our relatives. Though He is against overconcern about this because this can capture our thoughts. Using birds and flowers as an example Christ showed how our Heavenly Father cares about them. He knows what we need. He is the source of our life. We should accept this and abandon extra worries.