January 7, 2026 - The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.com

Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II preached about loving one’s neighbor while warning against equating true love with a love for a sinful way of life, as well as abusing freedom of speech, in an epistle delivered late on January 6, on the eve of Orthodox Christmas.

According to the epistle, read out by Archdeacon Demetre (Davitashvili), the incarnate God “proclaimed to humanity the core essence of the new commandment in these words: ‘Love one another and just as I have loved you, you also should love one another’.” This, the epistle says, “implies a dedicated love for the other (one’s neighbor).”

“It is important that the Savior did not define for us whether one’s neighbor shall be good or evil, successful or unsuccessful, rich or poor, wise or foolish,” the Patriarch said. “At first glance, it may seem easy to live by this commandment, but in this world the devil has laid countless temptations and traps, and our minds often fail to realize whom we truly serve. That is why we are wrong while believing ourselves to be in the right,” the epistle reads.

One example, the Patriarch said, is that “today everyone speaks of both love and freedom, yet those who equate love for sin and a sinful life with true love, and those who regard the liberty to do everything as freedom, commit an irreparable mistake.”

The epistle then directly switched to the freedom of speech, warning that the abuse of freedom of speech is “one of the most difficult tests of our time.”

Such a test, the patriarch said, “can be successfully overcome only by those who will be able to walk worthily toward the Lord along the path of truth, who will be able to forbear and forgive; by those who still see in every human being – regardless of the gravity of their’s sins – the image of God and do not respond to evil with evil.”

While not directly touching upon politics, the epistle comes amid the increasingly repressive environment in Georgia, with government critics repeatedly fined or even detained for “insulting” officials, whether in person or on social media.

Commenting on the epistle with media, Shalva Papuashvili, speaker of the disputed parliament, said the Patriarch was implying “that everyone must acknowledge that under the guise of freedom of speech the most evil and most murderous weapon was sneaked to us, the one which kills not only physically, but kills the soul of a person, including the soul of those who use this weapon.”

Papuashvili warned it was important to “strike a balance and harmony in everything,” expressing sadness over “a distorted idea of liberalism which for years has been imposed in different countries through various funding.”

“In fact, we were held like test animals when hate, spite, verbal attacks were not only allowed, but they were welcomed and are still being welcomed by some of the European ambassadors or European donor organizations,” Papuashvili told reporters on January 7.

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