Orthodox Daily Devotional
Orthodox Daily Devotional
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Today’s Commemorations
Great Martyr Theodore the Tyro (Recruit) (ca. 306)
Hieromartyr Germogén (Hermogenes), Patriarch of Moscow and Wonderworker of All Russia (1612)
Ven. Theodore the Silent, of the Kiev Caves (Far Caves—13th c.)
St. Mariamne, sister of Apostle Philip (1st c.)
Uncovering of the Relics of Martyr Menas of Alexandria (867-869)
Weeping “Tikhvin” Icon of the Mother of God on Mount Athos
Scripture Readings
Jude 1:1-10
¹ Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
² Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
The Presence of False Teachers
³ Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Judgment of Such False Teachers
⁵ But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; ⁷ as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
The Character of False Teachers
⁸ Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. ⁹ Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.
Luke 22:39-42, 45—23:1
Gethsemane
³⁹ Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. ⁴⁰ When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
⁴¹ And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, ⁴² saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
⁴⁵ When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. ⁴⁶ Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”
Before Pilate
²³:¹ Then the whole multitude of them arose and led Him to Pilate.
Reflection
Today’s readings present us with two profound themes: vigilance against deception and submission to God’s will in suffering.
Contending for the Faith
Jude’s epistle is urgent and direct. He warns the early Church about false teachers who “crept in unnoticed”—those who twist God’s grace into license for sin and deny Christ. The language is stark: these deceivers are compared to the unbelieving Israelites destroyed in the wilderness, to fallen angels bound in darkness, and to Sodom and Gomorrah consumed by fire.
The warning remains relevant. Today, as then, there are voices that would reduce Christianity to moralism without holiness, or freedom without truth. Jude calls us to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” This is not a call to argumentativeness, but to steadfast adherence—to hold fast to the apostolic teaching handed down through the Church.
Notice Jude’s method: he doesn’t create new doctrine, but appeals to what his readers “once knew.” The faith is not evolving or adapting; it is received, guarded, and transmitted. In an age of endless religious innovation, Jude reminds us that faithfulness means preserving what has been entrusted to us.
Gethsemane: The Agony of Obedience
The Gospel reading takes us to the Mount of Olives on the night of Christ’s betrayal. Here we witness the most profound moment of human struggle in all of Scripture: the Son of God, fully human, facing the horror of the Cross.
“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
This prayer is the model of Christian discipleship. Christ’s human will recoils from suffering—He asks that the cup might pass. Yet His divine-human will is perfectly united to the Father’s: “not My will, but Yours, be done.” This is not passive resignation, but active, agonizing obedience.
Luke tells us Christ’s “sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (v. 44). The physical manifestation of extreme stress—hematidrosis—reveals the reality of His suffering. This was no play-acting. The Incarnate God truly suffered, truly wrestled, truly obeyed.
And where were the disciples? “He found them sleeping from sorrow.” Even in their grief, they could not stay awake. Christ faces His passion alone, upheld only by an angel from heaven.
The Connection
Both readings call us to wakefulness. Jude warns us to be alert to false teaching that would lull us into spiritual complacency. Jesus commands His disciples—and us—to “Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”
The Christian life is not passive. It requires vigilance, discernment, and the continual alignment of our will with God’s. Like Christ in Gethsemane, we will face moments when obedience is costly, when the cup we’re asked to drink is bitter. In those moments, we pray His prayer: “Not my will, but Yours, be done.”
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, You who knelt in agony in the garden and submitted Your will perfectly to the Father’s, teach us obedience. Guard us from deception and give us wisdom to discern truth from error. When suffering comes, grant us the grace to say with You, “Not my will, but Yours, be done.” Through the prayers of the Great Martyr Theodore and all the saints, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
From The Orthodox Study Bible
Daily readings from the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org)
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