Слово 30

(1) How many types of knowledge about God are there and what are they? – (2) We should know that there is a God, but what He is should not be inquired into. – (3) To be a Christian, you must believe and be baptized. – (4) Who is called and is a Christian, and who is called, but is not a Christian? – (5) He who does not do the will of Christ the Savior is not a Christian. – (6) Unrighteous Christians are worse than Jews. 1. There are five types of knowledge about God. The first is that God is not anything from all that exists, visible or conceivable; the second is that every thing, visible or conceivable, received existence from God and did not exist before; third - that God created everything, bringing it from non-existence into being, not because he needed any of it, but according to His sole goodness, in order to make creatures partakers of His glory, and power, and goodness; fourth - that He is good by nature, and wants all good and good, and hates all evil and all sin; fifth - that a virtuous and godly life is managed by the power of God, and it cannot be managed in any other way, unless, that is, the power of God, which mentally and invisibly embraces and contains everything, assists and helps. The Divinity is (as far as it is possible for a person to say about it) a single being and nature, supersubstantial and supernatural, and three hypostases. One is the hypostasis of the Father, and another is the Son, and another is the Holy Spirit. There is one Divinity of three united hypostases - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, so that God is neither one (trinity for the sake of Persons), nor three (unity for the sake of being), but together one and three, that is, one Divinity and three Persons. The all-essential Deity is the Mind having the Word and the Spirit. The Father gives birth to the Son and gives birth to the Holy Spirit. When God is called the Father, it is of course together with the Son and the Holy Spirit. When the Son is called God, of course he is the Son of God the Father. When the Holy Spirit is called God, of course it comes from the Father and is not alien to the Son. This unity and distinction are incomprehensible and inexpressible. 2. We only need to know that God exists, but to try to find out what God exists is not only impudent, but also meaningless and unreasonable. The potter who makes vessels from dust, despite the fact that they are of the same nature as him (for he is also made from dust), has never heard of any vessel made by him to begin to question and investigate what this potter who made it is. Of course, there is a great difference between the potter and the vessel he makes, although they are of the same nature, but the difference between God and man is immeasurably great. Therefore, if God is not anything out of all that exists, visible or conceivable, then whoever wants to explore and comprehend the nature of God is more meaningless than a pottery vessel. The works of God - the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the sea, man and all other creations - testify that there is a God who created them, and every reasonable person can be convinced from them that there is a God; but that there is a God, whom no man has seen or can see, we should not investigate, but it is better to remain silent about this, worshiping the one God and believing in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in one nature and three hypostases, and in the great mystery of the incarnate economy, that is, that God the Word and the Son, consubstantial with the Father, without separating from the Father, entered the womb of the Virgin and became incarnate, received Himself a perfect human nature, having remained immutably God, and was incarnately born from the Ever-Virgin God-man, in two perfect natures of Divinity and humanity, united inextricably and immutably; that then He suffered and was crucified by His will, died and was buried by His will; that after that he rose again on the third day and finally, after forty days, ascended into heaven as a man, and sits on the throne of His Divinity with His flesh, sung with the Father and the Holy Spirit by all the heavenly armies; - that all this that we have said is arranged so that those who believe in Christ through Him would again be clothed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and with its help they would faithfully fulfill the commandments of God, defeating the devil and all his servants - the demons. For without the grace of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for anyone not to sin, it is impossible for anyone to begin to fulfill the holy commandments and fulfill them, and to overthrow the power and violence that the demons have had over us. 3. And at the same time (believe) that we must be baptized into the Trinity of one essence, as we also believed, according to the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ, given by Him to the Apostles: go and teach all tongues, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep everything according to the commandments given to you (Matthew 28:19-20), that if we keep everything, we will show our love for Him, and through this we will be worthy to abide in His love, as it is written: If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love (John 15:10). For if we do not keep His commandments, then we clearly do the opposite and thereby show that we do not love God, as He says: He who does not love Me does not keep My words (John 14:24), and again: He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me (John 14:21); so that a believer in Christ cannot prove this faith in anything other than doing what He commanded and avoiding what He forbids. 4. It is good to believe in Christ, but it is also necessary to believe in Christ, for whoever does not believe in Christ receives no benefit from believing in Christ. So, we must believe in Christ, that He is God, consubstantial with God the Father, incarnate for our sake, as we said; but we must believe both Christ and all His words, believe that everything is absolutely true, whatever He said, the blessings He promised are true, and the torments with which He frightened us are also true. The holy martyrs believed in Him, they also believed in Him in that He said: whoever denies Me, I will also deny him, and he who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 10:33, 22). That is why they endured all sorts of tortures until death; Otherwise, how could they have wanted to die if they had not believed what the Lord said? And all who lived reverently and righteously lived reverently and righteously because they believed the promises and threats of Christ the Lord. Whoever, believing in Christ, says that he also believes in Christ, and yet does not avoid the sins that He forbade, nor do the good deeds that He commanded, he is an infidel, one who rejects Christ, and the word of the Apostle comes to him: by transgressing the law of God you are dishonored (Rom. 2:23). If he says that he believes in Christ in all His words, because he believes in Christ, but cannot fulfill His commandments, because this requires heroism and great labor and is associated with great obstacles, then he is lying, for all the commandments that the Lord commanded the Apostles, and therefore us, to keep, we can keep even in the midst of the world, but we do not want to, because we are weak in faith and love for Christ, we do not have firm faith and ardent love for Christ, as it should be: otherwise, where do we put the saying of the Apostle, who says about Christ the Lord, that He became for us... and truth, and sanctification, and deliverance (1 Cor. 1:30), God's power and God's wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24)? The power of Christ in believers is twofold, since He Himself, although one in face, is dual in nature, is God and man. And how a person, who is of the same essence and homogeneous to us, gives to our hearts such a state as a person should have, like a person. For this reason, He gives the spirit of repentance to the person who communicates with Him, so that he may be contrite, humble, attentive, sober, tender, so as not to humiliate and despise him when he prays with such a disposition, that is, with contrition and humility, about which the prophet David speaks: God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19), for whoever does not pray with a contrite heart, he is despised and humiliated by God. When a person, having become such, begins to pray to God for virtues and seeks them, then Christ will grant them to him, since obviously he is meek and ready to learn the ways of the Lord, which are virtues - for only the meek are capable of being taught by Him, according to the word of Scripture: He will teach the meek in his way (Ps. 24:9); and makes him thus (like God) pure, chaste, righteous, courageous in temptations, wise in the divine, compassionate, compassionate, merciful, generous, philanthropic, good - a real Christian, bearing the image of Christ, and faithful, to whom is entrusted the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, through which and from which he acquires all the indicated virtues. For only by God are virtues made effective in man, and he thus becomes like his heavenly Father, which is now not entirely obvious, but will be revealed in the whole world in the next century, as St. John the Theologian certifies, saying: now we are children of God, and not having appeared that we shall be; We know that when He appears, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2), that is, like Christ, the Son of God, for the kingdom of God accepts only those who are like the Son of God. This likeness is established through the fulfillment of God’s commandments; the fulfillment of the commandments comes from love for Christ, as He Himself says: He who loves Me, will keep My commandments. He who fulfills the commandments of Christ becomes in His likeness, because Christ is imagined in him, as the Apostle Paul says: My children, even though I am sick, until Christ is imagined in you (Gal. 4:19). The Kingdom of God does not open to that Christian in whom Christ has not been imagined. 5. So, a Christian who does not do the will of Christ should not deceive himself and think that he has a part with Christ, for Christ Himself says: not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21). If He Himself says so, then how is it possible for someone who does not do His will and despises His commandments to be a real Christian? Or with what hope does he confess Christ as his Lord and Ruler, and does not try to please Him? – Who is it that confesses Christ as their Lord and Ruler, and yet does not do the will of this Lord? Demons do not do His will, despite all that they know and confess that He is God, for they say: We know who you are, the Holy One of God (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34). So that one is a true Christian who not only confesses Christ as his Lord, but also does His will. Whoever confesses in his heart and has Christ as his Lord and Master is strengthened by the power of calling on the name of Christ to do His will. If anyone is not strengthened in this way, it is obvious that he confesses Christ only with his lips, but is far from Him in his heart. For it is impossible for anyone to confess Christ as Lord with all his soul and with all his heart and not be strengthened to do His will. To the extent of our faith, we receive both help and vitality to do the will of Christ. So, he who keeps the commandments of Christ, by the measure of his active fulfillment of them, shows the measure of his faith, because by the measure of faith one also receives a measure of grace, which gives power to do deeds according to the commandments. And vice versa, whoever does not keep the commandments of Christ, by the measure of inaction in relation to the commandments, shows the measure of his unbelief, because to the extent of unbelief he is deprived of both grace, both inciting to do the commandments and helping in them. Without Christ it is impossible to do the will of Christ, as He Himself says: without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5). So, whoever does not do the will of Christ is obviously without Christ, and confessing Christ will not bring him any benefit. However, to confess Christ from the heart and to do His will seem to be only two different things; in essence, this is one and the same thing, and not two, and one of them cannot stand without the other, although some, not having the proper concept of this, think that one of them can stand without the other, while the Apostle James says: faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself (James 2:17), and Christ the Lord cries out: why do you call Me: Lord, Lord, and do not what I say? (Luke 6:46). “Truly I tell you, my brothers, that every person who commits sin is not a slave of Christ, but is a slave of sin; but the servant of sin shall not abide forever in the house of God the Father. There dwells the Son and the one whom the Son will free from slavery to sin. The house of God and the Father is His kingdom. 6. So, whoever calls himself a Christian, and, saying that he confesses Christ as God and believes in Him, by virtue of one such confession thinks that he is a Christian and is worthy of the kingdom of Christ, he is deceived. For is it possible for someone to be a Christian who every day, or, better yet, every hour, by his deeds denies Christ, Whom he confesses as God in words? Listen to what the Apostle Paul says about such: They confess God, but His works are averted; they are abominations and do not subdue, and are not skilled in every good work (Titus 1:16). Whoever does not keep the commandments of Christ should not think that he is not denying Christ. No, in every crime of the commandments of Christ he denies Christ, just as, on the contrary, whoever keeps the commandments of Christ confesses Christ with every fulfillment of the commandments. Just as those who believe only in words deny their faith by their deeds, so, on the contrary, these, by doing deeds consistent with faith, confirm with these deeds their oral confession of faith. For they are filled with fear of Him whom they confess to be God. And this fear teaches them not to violate in anything, even the slightest, the known will of God, whether anyone sees them or not. Many, out of fear or human shame, or in order to please people, do not do evil - which is the same thing as if they did it, as, on the contrary, those who do good for the same reasons are the same as if they did not do it. Anyone who does good to please people or out of some other passion is obscene before God. It is necessary in every good deed, word and thought to have the goal of pleasing God and His glory, as the holy Apostle Paul teaches, saying: whether you eat or drink, or do anything else, do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). If this word is true and firm, which it truly is, then what justification can those who do things only for show before people imagine? The Pharisees did their deeds for show, and this is the definition our Lord Jesus Christ spoke for us regarding this: unless your righteousness comes to pass rather than the scribe and the Pharisee, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20). That is: if you do not stop doing things for show, as the Pharisees did, and do not do them for the glory of God, then you will not enter the kingdom of God. This is what you are thinking about! If he who does not exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees does not enter the kingdom of God, then what will happen to those who have more untruths or sins than the scribes and Pharisees? May God deliver us from the fate of such people and, having taught us to do things solely to please Him and to His glory, may He make us worthy of His kingdom in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen. 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