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For Judas is interpreted as confession, but these are not confessing to God, having unlawfully caused the passion of Christ, so that repenting they might be saved. If then those who are not saved frequent things from which they do not profit, what defense will you make to the Lord God, you who are absent from His Church and not even imitating the gentiles, but through being absent are despondent or apostatizing or doing evil? To whom the Lord says through Jeremiah: "You have not kept My ordinances, nor have you walked according to the ordinances of the nations; you have almost even surpassed them." And again: "Israel has justified her soul more than faithless Judah." And what follows: "Will a nation change its gods, though they are not gods? For cross over to the isles of Chittim and see, and send to Kedar and understand well, if such things have happened. For those nations do not change their customs, but My people, He says, have changed their glory, from which they will not profit." How then will anyone make a defense who has slighted or departed from the Church of God? But if anyone is negligent, bringing forward the excuse of his own work, making excuses in sins, let such a one know that the crafts of the faithful are side-jobs, but the real work is piety. Therefore, do your crafts as a side-task for your sustenance, but practice piety as your work, as the Lord also said: "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for that which endures to eternal life." And again: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." Be zealous, therefore, never to forsake the Church of God; but if anyone should despise it, and enter a polluted place of the gentiles or into a synagogue of Jews or heretics, what defense will such a one make to God on the day of judgment? having forsaken the living and life-giving oracles of the living God, which are able to deliver from eternal punishment, and having gone to a house of demons or to a synagogue of Christ-killers or to an assembly of evil-doers, not having heard Him who said: "I have hated the congregation of evil-doers, and I will not enter in with the transgressors; I have not sat with the council of vanity, and I will not sit with the ungodly." And again: "Blessed is the man, who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly and has not stood in the way of sinners and has not sat in the seat of the pestilent, but his will is in the law of the Lord and in His law he will meditate day and night." You

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Ἰούδας γὰρ ἐξομολόγησις ἑρμηνεύεται, οὗτοι δὲ οὐκ εἰσὶν ἐξομολογούμενοι Θεῷ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρανόμως πεποιηκότες, ἵνα καὶ μεταγνόντες σωθῶσιν. Eἰ οὖν οἱ μὴ σῳζόμενοι ἐν οἷς οὐκ ὠφελοῦνται πυκνά ζουσιν, σὺ τί ἂν ἀπολογήσῃ Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ὁ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας αὐτοῦ ἀπολειπόμενος καὶ μηδὲ τὰ ἔθνη μιμούμε νος, ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦ ἀπολείπεσθαι ·ᾳθυμῶν ἢ ἀποστατῶν ἢ κακοποιῶν; Oἷς λέγει ὁ Κύριος διὰ τοῦ Ἱερεμίου· «Τὰ δικαιώματά μου οὐκ ἐφυλάξατε, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ κατὰ τὰ δικαιώματα τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐπορεύθητε, παρ' ὀλίγον καὶ ὑπερβάλ λετε αὐτούς.» Καὶ πάλιν· «Ἐδικαίωσεν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀσυνθέτου Ἰούδα.» Καὶ ἑξῆς· «Eἰ ἀλλάξονται ἔθνη θεοὺς αὐτῶν, καὶ οὗτοι οὐκ εἰσὶν θεοί· ὅτι διέλθετε νήσους Χετιεὶμ καὶ ἴδετε, καὶ εἰς Κηδὰρ ἀποστείλατε καὶ νοήσατε σφόδρα, εἰ γέγονεν τοιαῦτα· ὅτι ἐκεῖνα μὲν οὐκ ἀμείβουσιν τὰ ἑαυτῶν νόμιμα, ὁ δὲ λαός μου, φησίν, ἠλλάξατο τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, ἐξ ἧς οὐκ ὠφεληθήσεται.» Πῶς οὖν ἀπολογήσεταί τις ὀλιγωρήσας ἢ ἐκστὰς τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τοῦ Θεοῦ; Eἰ δέ τις τὴν τοῦ ἔργου τοῦ ἰδίου πρόφασιν ἐπιφέρων ὀλιγωρεῖ προφασιζόμενος προφάσεις ἐν ἁμαρτίαις, γινωσκέτω ὁ τοιοῦτος, ὡς αἱ τέχναι τῶν πιστῶν ἐπέργιά εἰσιν, ἔργον δὲ ἡ θεοσέβεια. Τὰς οὖν τέχνας ὑμῶν ὡς ἐν παρέργῳ ποιεῖτε εἰς διατροφὴν ὑμῶν, ἔργῳ δὲ τὴν θεοσέβειαν ἀσκεῖτε, ὡς καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἔλεγεν· «Ἐργάζεσθε μὴ τὴν βρῶσιν τὴν ἀπολλυμένην, ἀλλὰ τὴν μένουσαν εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον.» Καὶ πάλιν· «Τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν τὸ ἔργον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἵνα πιστεύσητε εἰς ὃν ἀπέστειλεν ἐκεῖνος.» Σπουδάζετε οὖν μηδέποτε τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καταλιμπάνειν· εἰ δέ τις ταύτην ὑπερίδη, εἰς μιαρὸν δὲ ἐθνῶν εἰσέλθοι ἢ εἰς συναγωγὴν Ἰουδαίων ἢ αἱρετικῶν, ὁ τοιοῦτος τί ἀπολογήσεται τῷ Θεῷ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως; Λόγια Θεοῦ ζῶντος καταλιπὼν ζῶντα καὶ ζωοποιοῦντα καὶ δυνάμενα ·ύσασθαι κολάσεως αἰωνίου, καὶ πορευθεὶς εἰς οἶκον δαιμόνων ἢ εἰς συναγωγὴν χριστοκτόνων ἢ εἰς ἐκκλησίαν πονηρευομένων, οὐκ ἀκούσας τοῦ εἰπόντος· «Ἐμίσησα ἐκκλησίαν πονηρευομένων, καὶ μετὰ παρα νομούντων οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθω· οὐκ ἐκάθισα μετὰ συνεδρίου ματαιότητος, καὶ μετὰ ἀσεβῶν οὐ μὴ καθίσω.» Καὶ πάλιν· «Μακάριος ἀνήρ, ὃς οὐκ ἐπορεύθη ἐν βουλῇ ἀσεβῶν καὶ ἐν ὁδῷ ἁμαρτωλῶν οὐκ ἔστη καὶ ἐπὶ καθέδρᾳ λοιμῶν οὐκ ἐκάθισεν, ἀλλ' ἢ ἐν τῷ νόμῳ Κυρίου τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ νόμῳ αὐτοῦ μελετήσει ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτός.» Σὺ