БЛИЖНИЙ

My neighbor is not so much the one who is close to me by kinship, but rather the one who recognizes the same father with me and has fellowship at the same meal; this connection is stronger than kinship, just as dissimilarity in morals leads to alienation much more than difference in origin. Never mind that we live under the same sky and in the same universe; but I seek another fellowship that is higher than heaven; there is our fatherland and life. “Your life,” says the apostle, “is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). We do not live on earth, but have moved to a higher dwelling. We have a different true light, a different fatherland, different fellow citizens and relatives. That is why Paul says: “not strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints” (Eph. 2:19). How, you say, did Christ call the Samaritan neighbor, although there was a great difference [between him and a true believer]? But not by natural relationship either. So, when you need to show a benefit, then let every person be your neighbor; and when it comes to the truth, then distinguish between your own and someone else's. Even if your brother, who is related by father and mother, did not have fellowship with you in the law of truth, then he should be more alien to you than a Scythian; and on the contrary, if a Scythian or Sauromatian contains the right dogmas and believes in the same things that you believe in, then he should be closer and dearer to you than your half-brother; and we distinguish a barbarian from a non-barbarian not by language, not by origin, but by thoughts and soul. He is primarily the person who contains the right teaching of the faith and leads a wise life (3). You might be interested in: