About love

The Lord said beautifully: “My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Indeed, what burden or what work is it to forgive a brother’s sins - light and insignificant - and thereby gain forgiveness of one’s own sins and quick justification? The Lord did not say: I demand from you money, or bulls, or kids, or fasting, or watchfulness, so that you do not make excuses: I don’t have this, I cannot do this, but what is easy, accessible and simple, that is exactly what He demands, saying: forgive your brother his sins, and I will forgive you your sins. You will forgive small debts, maybe a few obols or at least a hundred denarii, and I will forgive you a thousand talents. And you just forgive, without adding anything on your own, but I will forgive your sins, and I will give you healing and a kingdom. And I will accept your gift itself when you are reconciled with your enemy, when you do not harbor enmity against anyone, when the sun does not set on your anger, when you have peace and love with everyone; then your prayer will be pleasing to Me, and My blessing will rest on your house, and you will be blissful. If you do not want to be reconciled with your brother, then how can you expect forgiveness from Me? Do you trample my words and demand forgiveness? I, the Master, command, and you do not pay attention - how can you, a slave, dare to offer God a prayer, a sacrifice, or the first fruits, having enmity against someone? As you turn away your face from your brother, so God turns away His eyes from your gift and from your prayer; God is love, and therefore everything done without love is displeasing to Him. Indeed, how can God accept a prayer, or a gift, or firstfruits, or fruits from a murderer if he does not first properly repent? But you, of course, will object to me: I am not a murderer. I will prove to you that you are a murderer, or rather, John the Theologian denounces you, asserting: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). Let us not, my beloved brothers, value anything other than love, let us not care about anything other than it; let no one have enmity against another, let no one repay evil with evil: “let not the sun go down on your wrath” (Eph. 4:26), but let us forgive our debtors all their sins. Indeed, what is the use, children, if someone has everything, but does not have saving love? If someone organizes a big feast for the king and the authorities with as much luxury as possible, so that there is no shortage of anything, and he does not have salt, will not the whole feast be upset as a result? Of course, he will be upset, and thus the organizer of the feast will incur expenses, and his labors will be in vain, and moreover, he will be embarrassed in front of the guests invited to the feast. So here it is: what is the use of working for nothing? Without love, every deed and every merit is impure and imperfect; Whether someone keeps virginity, fasts, stays vigilant, prays, feeds the poor, brings, as it seems to him, gifts, or firstfruits, or fruits, builds churches or does anything else, without love all this is counted as nothing in the eyes of God. Do not wait for God's favor in this case. Listen to what the apostle says: whoever harbors enmity against his brother and, meanwhile, makes an offering to God is the same as if he were sacrificing a dog; his offering is no better than the wages of a harlot (cf. Matt. 5:23–24; Is. 66:3; Deut. 23:18). Never do anything without love, because love covers a multitude of sins. Oh, what a blessing we neglect! Oh, what blessings and what joy we are deprived of if we are not established in love! Not wanting to acquire it, Judas withdrew from the ranks of the apostles, leaving the true light; Having hated his Teacher and his brothers, he plunged into darkness. That is why the Supreme Apostle Peter said about him: “Judas fell away to go to his own place” (Acts 1:25). On the other hand, John the Theologian says: “But whoever hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11). And if you say that although I do not love my brother, I love God, John again denounces you in these words: “Whoever says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20)? So, whoever has love with all his brothers, who does not harbor enmity against anyone who fulfills the apostle’s commandments: “Let not the sun go down on your anger” (Eph. 4:26), he who loves God is His disciple, who said: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). It is obvious from this that the disciples of Christ are known by this sign - by true love among themselves. And whoever hates his brother, even if he thought to himself that he loves Christ, is a lie and deceives himself. So the Apostle John says that “we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should also love his brother” (1 John 4:21). In another place, the Lord said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” and to show the power of love, he added: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37, 39–40). An extraordinary miracle! He who has unfeigned love fulfills the whole law. “So love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10), as the apostle says. Oh, the incomparable power of love! Oh, the immeasurable power of love! There is nothing more valuable than love - neither in heaven nor on earth. That is why the Apostle Paul, having learned that nothing is equal to love, declared to all ends of the universe in his writings: “Do not owe anyone anything except mutual love” (Rom. 13:8) and lay down your life for each other. This love is the head of all virtues, the salt of virtues; love is the fulfillment of the law, love is true salvation. She once prevailed in the heart of Abel, she made Noah a helmsman, she assisted the patriarchs, she saved Moses, she made David the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, she inspired the prophets, she strengthened Job. And why not say it stronger? She brought down the Son of God from heaven to us on earth. Through love the Incorporeal One is incarnated, the Beginningless One begins, the Son of God becomes the Son of Man; love arranges the whole work of salvation: death is abolished, the devil is deposed, Adam is returned to paradise, Eve becomes free; love united angels and people into a single herd; love resolved the oath, opened heaven, clarified life, promised the kingdom of heaven. She, having caught the fishermen, made them fishers of men, she inflamed and strengthened the martyrs, she populated the deserts, she filled the mountains and caves with psalmody, she united angels and people into one, she prompted husbands and wives to walk the narrow and cramped path. But until when, finally, do we have to chase the elusive? Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith”