Before beginning a conversation, and especially a debate, it’s necessary to agree on the meanings of key words, terms, and concepts… to understand what we mean by each word and what reality they refer to. During the conversation, if unknown concepts arise or if I find the thoughts of the interlocutor unclear, it is crucial to immediately clarify the meaning of the words as intended by the speaker; to ask the speaker whether I have understood correctly, whether I truly hear the speaker and understand their thoughts; whether I am perceiving the same reality that the speaker’s words indicate.
This is hard work! Great effort! Without this endeavor, all our conversations, discussions, and polemics are mere empty talk, for which we will “give an account” because we speak words without love, which is always attentive, always listens to the Other. Without this, we will be strangers to each other, not understanding each other, even though we might think we understand because we are using familiar words. The same word, sounding alike, written the same way, can have diametrically opposite meanings in different epochs and cultural contexts, pointing to mutually exclusive realities. For example, the word “hope” in the mouth of Apostle Paul had a diametrically opposite meaning compared to its use in the 21st century (see below: Holy Scripture. The Bible – V.A.); “hypostasis” – at different times, this word denoted both the general being of “everything” (essence, nature – V.A.) and the specific, individual (at the Second Ecumenical Council, through the efforts of the Cappadocian Fathers, the word “hypostasis” unambiguously began to denote personality, “I”, i.e., that which is not reducible to nature, the bearer of nature – V.A.); not to mention the homonyms of everyday use (homonyms – words that sound and are written the same but have different meanings. For example, “beam” (a wooden or metal bar), “beam” (a ravine): both nouns in all singular and plural cases have the same forms; crane (for lifting and moving loads), crane (for shutting off water, gas, etc.) and others – V.A.).
So many polemics and disputes have been fruitless, a waste of time, a cause of resentment and hostility just because opponents argued in different conceptual languages, despite using words formally the same. And how many times it happened that both sides were Orthodox, but since a common conceptual framework had not been developed, there were no explanations of how a particular word was understood, thus the expressions of “opponents” became heretical in the language of the disputing parties accordingly (Example: Trinitarian (doctrine of the Holy Trinity) disputes of the 4th century and the labor of the Cappadocians in refining terminology, particularly the word “hypostasis”, which has since gained unambiguity – V.A.).
All this we discuss regarding people who sincerely seek the truth, not those who have already found “their truth” (fanatics), or those who deliberately distort content, deceive, and want to mislead the interlocutor – we do not discuss such people, they are unfortunate; with such we do not debate – we only pray for them (“fanatic” from Greek – “dead person”; the dead are not communicated with – they are prayed for! – V.A.).
The one who seeks truth, salvation – always seeks depth, so he tries to illuminate all the dark places with understanding, knowledge, clarity. He always wants to know: what stands behind a word, what the author meant to say; he always reaches for the “spirit” of the word or scripture, not stopping at the “letter”. Because to stop at the “letter” precisely means to understand the scripture, the word not as the author understands, but to infuse one’s own understanding, one’s own spirit, which is death – a union by flesh instead of a union by spirit. To stop at the “letter” – adultery (from the word “misleading” – deception, mistake; to err – to make mistakes, to implement one’s life incorrectly – V.A.), using the flesh of another for one’s own pleasure, using it to fulfill one’s selfish, utilitarian (consumer – V.A.) goals, not to meet the personality and uniqueness (spirit – V.A.) of the Other, not a realization of life as the interpenetration of hypostases (“That they all may be one: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us… that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and You in Me” – V.A.) and union in love. The main thing in the life of a personality – communication with other personalities, not the use of nature for one’s own survival, to live off nature and “words” including. Therefore, “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life”.
Thus, never be hasty to condemn someone until you find out what a person understands by what they said, until they answer the question: “What do you believe?”. Because it’s not about the words. Someone says the right words, for example, recites aloud the Creed (Nicene-Constantinopolitan without “filioque” [heretical insertion stating that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son in a theological understanding, irrespective of the economy, the created world] – V.A.), but does not understand what they are saying; with their mouth Orthodox, but in mind (not to mention life, almost all heretics’ lives) – a heretic.