Слово 20

(1) Who are those who truly love God, from what is love for God born and how is it revealed? – (2) What are the deeds of love for our neighbors according to God? – (3) Love is the head of the law. 1. Some people are surprised when we say that not all Christians love Christ. But loving Christ is nothing other than fulfilling His commandments, as He Himself said: If you have My commandments and keep them, then you love Me (John 14:21); so that a Christian who does not keep His commandments, when he says that he loves Christ, lies. For every father who supports and raises his sons and daughters and takes care of them, and everyone who buys a slave for himself or takes a hired hand, of course, wants to have them for this purpose, feeds and clothes them and provides them with everything they need so that they help him and serve around the house. But if he sees that none of them fulfills his will and does not correct the work and service entrusted to him, then will he be content with the fact that his son and daughter will say to him: you are our father, and the slave and hired servant: you are our master? Of course not. Likewise, God is not satisfied with the fact that another says that he loves Him, but does not fulfill His commandments. Why does He say through the Prophet: If I am the Father, then where is My glory? And if the Lord is I, then where is My fear? (Mal.1:6). - Thus, a Christian who does not glorify God by fulfilling His commandments and keeping His commandments is no better than the infidels, if not worse than them. The commandments and commandments of God say: do this, and do not do this: it is not enough just not to do evil, but you must also do good. At the same time, it is necessary for us to know and confess that it is impossible for a Christian not to do evil and to do all good, except by the power of the All-Holy Spirit, given with all his soul to those who believe in Christ and renounce Satan and all his works, and all his service, and all his pride, and unite with Christ, and unite with Him. Human nature is changeable and perverse, and only the Divine nature is unchangeable and unchangeable. But a Christian, becoming a participant in the divine nature in Christ Jesus our Lord, through the acceptance of the grace of the Holy Spirit, is transformed and changed by His power into a God-like state, becomes a god by grace, similar to the One who made such a change in him, that is, Christ the Lord - the Sun of righteousness. A Christian surrenders himself entirely to Christ the Lord, and Christ the Lord produces in him the change shown and makes him a god by grace. A Christian cannot by himself bring about the desired change in himself, and Christ will not grace him with the gift of this change if he does not surrender himself to Him with all his heart. Why any Christian has not changed by this good change, let him not condemn his nature, but his will, because he himself did not want to wholeheartedly surrender to Christ. For the Apostle certifies that as soon as someone cleaves to the Lord, he becomes one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). And the Lord Himself says: abide in Me and I in you, just as the rod cannot produce fruit for itself unless it is on the vine, so also you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the birth. And he who is in Me, and I in him, will produce much fruit; because without Me you cannot do anything. If anyone does not abide in Me, he will be cast out like a rod and dry up (John 15:4-5). Again: be in My love; If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; Just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love (John 15:9–10). And one more thing: everyone understands this, because you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). Just as a student of a grammarian, a rhetorician, a philosopher, a poet, an artist, and every other student is known by his teacher, so a Christian, a disciple of Christ, is known by Christ, the Lord and God, his good Teacher, who loved us so much that for our sake he became man and gave up his soul as a ransom for us. Why can someone who does not have love be recognized as a disciple of Christ or a Christian? How, on the contrary, whoever has this love, even if he cannot undertake great feats and labors, but has acquired only this love, he, according to the law of our Teacher Christ, has ascended to the very top of the perfection of the saints. For it is thus written: Love your brother, fulfill the law (Rom. 13:8) and: Do not love your brother, whom you have seen, God, who you have not seen, how can you love? (1 John 4:20). Again: if anyone says that I love God but hates his brother, it is a lie (ibid.). But when you hear: love, let no one think that it is a manageable matter. The commandment of love is the greatest and most important. Why did God Himself from the beginning put a certain loving force into human nature, and naturally parents love their children, relatives love themselves mutually, and friends love their friends. But this natural power of love was given by God to help rational human nature, so that, using it, it flows towards (universal) self-willed and voluntary love. The great and perfect commandment of love given by God is spoken not about natural love, but about spontaneous love. 2. That the commandment of love is the greatest commandment and is the head of all virtues, higher than any good life and all difficult deeds, listen to what the Apostle Paul says about this - these are the lips of Christ, where he points out that without love the five greatest gifts are vain and useless, namely, the gifts of tongues, prophecy, miraculous faith, alms-giving and martyrdom, and says: if the tongues of men I say and angelic... if I have prophecy and I have all the mysteries and all the understanding, and if I have all the faith, even as I have left behind mountains... if I give away all my possessions and if I give up my body to be burned, but love is not an imam, there is no benefit for me (1 Cor. 13: 1-3). Then, believing that another, amazed by such words, is ready to ask him how it is possible to manifest such great deeds without love, he resolves this bewilderment and says: he is patient with love, he is merciful, he does not envy love, he is not proud of love, he is not proud, he does not act outrageously, he does not seek his own, he is not irritated, he does not think evil, he does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but he rejoices in the truth. He covers everything, he has faith in everything, he trusts everything, he endures everything. Love no longer exists (1 Cor. 13:4–8). By this he clearly showed that one who speaks in tongues can become proud, one who prophesies and has miraculous faith can become proud, one who gives alms can enjoy the glory and honor of those who have benefited him, and one who gives himself up to torment can think highly of himself. But since he ended his speech like this: love no longer disappears, he showed that the root of love is humility, since the root has nowhere to fall, being always in the depths of the earth. He who thinks that he has love, and yet does not have long-suffering and mercy, is envious and disrespectful, is proud and outrageous, seeks his own, is irritated and thinks evil, rejoices in unrighteousness and does not rejoice in the truth, does not embrace everything, does not have faith in everything, does not trust everything and does not endure everything, he does not have love, and when he says that he has it, he lies. 3. The entire law given from God to people is combined in love, which has two levels, since the law is twofold - old and new. He who ascended to the first stage left the earth below, and he who ascended to the second reached heaven. The Old Law says: You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself (Lev.19:18), and the New Law says: Love your enemy also (Matt.5:44); He also says: lay down your life for your friend. So, whoever loved his enemy ascended to the second step or ascended to heaven. On the contrary, whoever not only persecutes his enemy, but also hates his neighbor and does evil to those who love him, has fallen to the very depths of the earth. Let us take care, brothers, to acquire perfect love, so that we may obtain the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen. You might be interested in: