November: Day 3: Holy Martyrs Akepsimas the Bishop, Joseph the Presbyter and Aethalas the Deacon

November: Day 3:
Holy Martyrs Akepsimas the Bishop, Joseph the Presbyter and Aethalas the Deacon

(Types of Violations of the Sixth Commandment of God's Law Which Prohibits Murder)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyrs Akepsimas the Bishop, Joseph the Presbyter and Aethalas the Deacon, whose memory is celebrated today, suffered in the 4th century in the Persian Empire. When King Shapur began a persecution of Christians, the pagan priests first of all sought out bishops and presbyters. When Akepsimas, an 80-year-old elder, was brought before the governor, he said to the Saint:

“I have heard that you are considered the wisest among Christians, but meanwhile you are not at all smarter than senseless children, because you do not worship the sun and fire, which the king himself worships.”

“Your king and you together with him have gone mad, worshiping a creature instead of God,” answered the Saint.

The governor ordered that he be beaten with iron rods.

“Where is your God? Why does He not deliver you from torment?” the governor laughed.

“My God is everywhere,” answered Akepsimas. "He could have delivered me from your hands, but I prayed to Him that He would give me strength to endure the tortures and receive a reward for this in heaven."

He was thrown into prison. The next day, the presbyter Joseph and the deacon Aethalas were brought before the governor. They were also tortured when they refused to worship the sun and fire, saying: “We are not so blind as to worship a creature,” and they were thrown into prison.

Afterwards, they tried more than once to force the Saints to betray Christ and cruelly tortured them for their inflexibility. Finally, they were stoned. Guards were posted so that Christians would not bury the bodies of the martyrs; but a terrible thunderstorm arose and lightning struck the guards. The Lord Himself hid the bodies of the Saints.

II. On the day of commemoration of the Holy Martyrs Akepsimas the Bishop, Joseph the Presbyter and Aethalas the Deacon, who were killed with stones by order of inhuman torturers, let us talk, brethren, about the murder of a person and the various forms of this terrible sin, forbidden by the sixth commandment of the law of God: “Thou shalt not murder!”

a) The original purpose of the commandment - Thou shalt not murder - is to instill respect for human life. Man is a sacred thing for man, or, better said, should be a sacred thing. But since the inclinations to self-love make each man an idol for himself, therefore the life of a man must be sacred in the eyes of another. True Christians always reason in this way. In China, in Dahomey, and in all non-Christian and depraved countries, human life is not valued at all. The Romans willingly gathered crowds in the amphitheater to watch how strong youths hacked each other to pieces for their amusement. In Christian lands it is infinitely valuable.

The Lord promises to punish even the beasts for the shed blood of a man, will He not exact punishment for the blood of a man crying out for vengeance? "For all who take up the sword will perish by the sword." How often does this come true!

Only the most undeveloped nations or the lowest and most vicious people do not care about the perishing, if this destruction does not harm themselves.

The sixth commandment, along with God's paternal attitude towards people, establishes the brotherhood of man. It mainly prohibits the willful taking of human life. The murderer will not inherit the Kingdom of God unless he repents with true Christian repentance.

b) It is unnecessary to talk about duels. Their senselessness and sinfulness are now clear to every Christian. A complete lack of understanding of the spirit of Christian love and a distorted concept of honor and the means of restoring it - this is the sad root of duels.

c) That the meaning of the sixth commandment forbids suicide is obvious, and even the best of the pagans understood that the law of the eternal Lord was against suicide. But this despair of unbelief, this renunciation of the only and sacred gift of God, this daring entry beyond the boundary of earthly life is an extremely sad phenomenon. Faith in God - living and strong - and in the afterlife, these are the means against suicide. Previously, suicide was an extremely rare phenomenon. During the four thousand years of the history of the Old Testament, only three suicides are mentioned.

d) Hatred is one of the most common types of murder. Just remember the words of the Holy Apostle John: “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer” (John 3:15); or remember the words of Jesus Christ: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘Thou shalt not murder.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:21–22).

Even language itself is a strong witness to the prevalence of this crime, since there is an extraordinary variety of words denoting the evil passions that are the beginnings of crime and murder.

Anger, rage, wrath, frenzy, frivolity, revenge, quarrels, peevishness, rivalry, obstinacy, malice, hostility, rancor, hatred, ill will, dislike, envy, jealousy, sedition, vexation, obstinacy, intolerance, bitterness, contempt, disgust, loathing, misanthropy - all these and similar designations, which make up the lamentable catalogue of the manifestations of hatred, indicate the terrible variety of forms which this huge and many-headed monster assumes. They are all forms of irritated selfishness. How often have we observed them and how often have we suffered from them!

But who among us is completely free from one or another of these mortal sins, so common and so tenacious?

How many, for example, are almost proud of the fact that they are easily irritated. They think that this indicates the greatness of their spirit, whereas it only reveals their pride and lack of restraint.

How often has life been poisoned by a malicious letter, and harmony and golden tranquility driven out of families by one thoughtless word! How right was the wise Solomon when he said: "Anger dwells in the heart of fools." This is what we call "cherishing malice."

How often do we hear such speeches: "I will repay him;" "I will stand in his way;" "I have not yet paid him;" "I will repay him in the same coin." Sometimes this ends in weak "annoyance," but sometimes it turns into malicious "revenge," which makes cruel madmen out of people. But the meaning of this commandment says: "Do not avenge yourself and do not give place to anger." "Do good to those who hate you." This is the sublime teaching of the Gospel!

Before us is the example of our Divine Teacher and Savior: when insulted, He did not respond to insults; when persecuted, He did not threaten, but gave Himself up to the will of Him Who judges righteously. How well we all know these truths and how often we turn away from them through the crafty self-deception of our hearts!

Does not the Parable of the Unmerciful Creditor (Matt. 18:21-35) show us that the unforgiving will not be forgiven, and does it not warn us not to strangle our slave-debtor by demanding the debt from him?

Close to these shortcomings is the evil passion of envy. Petty people with easily irritated pride cannot bear it if someone is preferred to them, or if someone surpasses them.

When a man rises above his equals by even a millionth of an inch, how many attacks he has to endure; they try to belittle him, to abuse his trust. And if some malicious slanderer, in order to lower his dignity, spreads a caustic mockery about him, then his name begins to be mentioned more often, and twenty lips spread this mockery with poisonous joy!

And this envy turns into hatred, malice, misanthropy. But all these feelings, as Jesus Christ said, are equivalent to murder. They lead a person to the misfortune he deserves himself, as a punishment from God. They embrace and entangle the soul, and fill it with suffering and melancholy.

Envy is a kind of hellfire, which, like the underground fires, cannot be extinguished.

d) The temptation to sin is also the greatest crime against the sixth commandment, for through it the soul can be destroyed for eternal life.

On the pages of many publications of unbelievers, Jesus Christ is crucified again, and His sad face looks down from the cross at the same thing almost two thousand years after His suffering.

How many of us, brethren, are there who, without giving an account of their words, have committed sin.

To place stumbling blocks in the path of the inexperienced, to tempt the weak onto the path of wickedness or vice, to be a tempter for others, to confuse the souls for which the Savior accepted death - these are the most destructive crimes for man!

He who gives a harmful book to the youngest and weakest, a book that will destroy him in ten minutes; who is a guide to sin for his comrade, whom he calls his friend; who is the first to sow the seeds of hell into the soul of one of the least of Christ's brethren; who leads another to the very brink of the abyss, teaching him to lie, or to indulge in gambling, or drunkenness, or to destroy the best inclinations of his nature, may be worse in the sight of God than murderers who are hanged for their crime.

All of God's commandments are connected with one another. By breaking one of them, they are often all broken. Not only a liar, but also one who has acquired wealth tainted by the murder of someone's good name, or a seducer who sometimes moves even in the highest circles of society - in the eyes of God is a murderer. The Lord's retribution for murder will not pass him by.

e) Every selfish, criminal, oppressive activity is murder in the eyes of God. It may make a millionaire or a nobleman, but just as it is true that God bases the entire edifice of social order on the cornerstone of Christian love, so it is also true that the spirit of Cain dwells in those who prosper at the expense of the misfortunes of their fellow men.

According to the ancient laws of the Levites, if an ox known for its goring ability rushed to gore someone, the owner of the ox was put to death.

g) Christian brethren! Let us not forget to remind you that even cold indifference and apathy towards the misfortune of people contains a kind of murder. The priest and the Levite were the same murderers for their unfortunate wounded fellow man, who is mentioned in the well-known Gospel parable, whom they left lying on the road, as if he had not touched them, and all this only because they adhered to different rituals and did not agree on the views on sacrifices.

h) If we treat someone insolently or contemptuously, if we cause any harm to his life, deprive him of his well-being, then we also violate the spirit of the sixth commandment. But we also violate it when we agree with such treatment, do not rebel against it, do not try with all our might to correct the countless injustices caused everywhere by people to their own brethren, if we do not care for the poor, if we do not devote part of our life to deeds pleasing to the Lord, if we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.

III. Christian brethren! Let us pray to the Lord that He, in His mercy, would send into our hearts the spirit of Christian love, so that by its light we might examine our whole life and in this bright light we might judge ourselves, so that we would not have to experience too late the terrible saying: “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15).

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.