SO GOOD QUOTES

Obedience is rendered first to God, and from His love proceeds all other love. Obedience is rendered first to God, and from this obedience proceeds all other obedience. The Bible said about the obedience of parents: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6.1). It is thus an essential obedience, but “in the Lord.” 

Jonathan did not obey his father Saul in his persecution of David but rather rebuked him, saying: “Why then do you sin against innocent blood, to put David to death without cause?” (1 Kingdoms 19.5). King Saul was a cause of stumbling to his son Jonathan, but Jonathan overcame this stumbling. In the same way King Solomon, even though he had a great respect for his mother Bathsheba, did not obey her in her intercession for Adonijah, his brother (3 Kingdoms 2.19-23).

The limit of obedience precludes stumbling. From your association with people and your experiences in life, you can realize the sources of stumbling for you. Benefit, then, from this experience by surrounding yourself with a pure atmosphere as much as you can. Those whom you cannot avoid physically, avoid with respect to your thoughts and direction of life.

—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, The Life of Repentance and Purity