Благочестие

The fear and love of God are the two ingredients of which true piety is composed; and its foundation is true and living faith living in the human heart. Piety is a sign of a spiritually living person. Impiety always laughs at piety and scolds it. Let any rich man sell his rich house, all his belongings, and let him squander all his property and give it to the poor and love the poverty of Christ. He will see for himself what will happen to him from the evil world. “What a fool he did! What people collect, he squanders.” So to the sons of this age piety seems like madness! True piety is like a light shining in the night of this world, which, although hidden, cannot hide, but is visible from afar. People are created no less by this example of pious life than by words. And although this example of piety is necessary for parents for the sake of their children, for shepherds, that is, bishops and priests, for the sake of Christ’s verbal sheep, which they feed with the word of God, for the authorities for the sake of those under their control, for teachers for the sake of their students, for the old for the sake of the students, for the old for the sake of the young, however, all Christians should not neglect this, but should help and encourage each other in the Christian deed against the flesh and the devil by example. Ancient Christians taught their children in the law of the Lord, the fear of God and all piety. The current ones don't have this. But instead they teach children dancing, secular politics and other vanity. Hence it happens that there is no point in looking for piety in fathers, and in children and grandchildren. So today's Christians left the first Christians with love, and with love - faith and true piety. The root and source of all piety is true knowledge of God; and just as a pious life is evidence of the knowledge of God, so a sinful and lawless life is evidence of ignorance of God and a godless heart, even if such a person confessed God and Christ, went to church, prayed, received the Sacrament and showed other signs of Christianity. We learn to seek true piety from the knowledge of our unworthiness, that is, when we want to have true piety in our hearts, we must in every possible way recognize our unworthiness and insignificance and thus humble ourselves, so that the Lord will look upon us, “he who looks upon the humble” (see Isa. 66:2), and will bestow His goodness. If the heart is not warmed with love, then a Christian has no benefit from his piety. True humility is inseparable from true piety, but is always associated with it. The more pious the heart, the more humble it is. The more a person is enlightened by the grace of God, the more he sees his unworthiness: just as the more we are enlightened by natural light, the more we see vices on the face, hands and rubbish in the house. Hence, seeing his unworthiness, a person humbles himself. If there is no humility in the heart, but there is great pride, there is no piety in that. For such a person does not recognize his unworthiness, and therefore piety does not fit into him. True piety cannot exist without God; God opposes the proud (1 Pet. 5:5), according to Scripture. In the feat of piety, the saints strengthened themselves with the hope of receiving eternal benefits. Love is the fulfillment of the law, according to the testimony of the Apostle (Rom. 13:10); The goal of exhortation is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith (1 Tim. 1:5). If anyone succeeds in Christian love, he also succeeds in piety. Love here is understood as the kind the apostle wrote about, that is, from a pure heart and so on; and Saint John says: my children! Let us begin to love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:18). It is not enough for salvation to begin piety, but one must also end one’s life in the deed of piety. Many start, but not all finish, as the case itself shows. Such a one is like one who begins a journey from one place to another and again returns from the path; like one who begins to build a house, but leaves it without finishing it; like one who began to create a pillar and did not finish. Such a one gives himself over to the ridicule and reproach of his enemies, the devil and his servants, who, when they see him, will begin to laugh at him, saying: this man began to build and could not finish (Luke 14:29-30). Piety is always the same; As it was from the beginning of the world, so it is now and always will be. Truth is always true, always unchangeable and was, and is, and will be. Piety is the true happiness of a Christian. When holy and pious souls become impoverished from this world, the devil arms himself even more cruelly against them and embitters them, either through himself or through his servants; and the closer the end of the world is, the greater and more severe the suffering that follows the pious; The devil especially rebels against those who stand and struggle against him, but neglects those who obey his will. To be with the godly, one must live godly. The godly, as the fruit of the Word of God, will be gathered into the Kingdom of Heaven. When a person does not have piety inside, then he does not have it outside, no matter how he shows himself. If there is no true fear of God, there is no true piety. For God not only looks at external deeds, but especially looks at the heart and judges by it. True godliness is hidden in the heart. White does not get along with black, darkness does not agree with light. And piety and wickedness have a constant war. What kind of agreement is there when one strives and forces himself to climb a mountain, while the other is rolling downhill? The world, lying in evil, does not love true piety and persecutes. Christ, the very piety and innocence, just appeared in the world and, like a gentle baby, being incapable of doing any evil, although he never did it, began to suffer persecution from city to city, and fled from country to country. From this it follows that in whom Christ begins to live spiritually is the truth, persecution follows... All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12), according to the word of the Apostle. Therefore, if persecution and hatred from the world happen to you, do not be embarrassed. Истинное богопочитание и благочестие – камень претыкания и камень соблазна для мира. The world hates what is opposite to it and stings its eyes, for this reason it rejects from itself and persecutes what is opposite to itself, but there is good for those persecuted by the world, because God accepts them. Take comfort in this when you suffer persecution from the world because of piety. Almost the entire strength of Christian piety lies in turning the heart away from this world. Only the pious are rich, according to the testimony of the Apostle Paul: it is a great gain to be pious and content (1 Tim. 6:6). What does acquisition mean? This is the same as wealth, treasure. What does it mean to be content? To be satisfied with what you have, whether small or great, much or little (this is discussed in the 4th paragraph). He who has piety has great treasure. Why? Because he has a treasure that is incomparably better than the treasure of this world, and he has it within himself, and not without; and inalienably has it, and now with him, and in death with him, and after death remains with him. What kind of treasure is this? Living faith, knowledge of God and reverence, the grace of the Holy Spirit and the hope of an eternal inheritance in heaven - all that is contained in godliness. This is the treasure and wealth of the pious! Having placed their hope in God, they are content with God as the ultimate good, greater than Whom there is no good and from Whom all good comes. God will give them a great reward, wealth, treasure and glory, and in a blessed life they will have everything in everything (1 Cor. 15:28). The wicked have the wealth that they have, that is, perishable and fleeting, as in a dream, and therefore they are poor and wretched, and, having abandoned everything with which, as in a dream, they were content, they will reach such poverty that they will desire a drop of water for all eternity, and no one will give them, as can be seen in the example of the Gospel rich man (see Luke 16:24). And the Lord confirms this by saying: What good does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? or what ransom will a man give for his soul (Matthew 16:26)? Although the wicked are rich, they are rich in barns and chests, and not in themselves, and this is like in a dream. Yesterday and all past time are like a dream for us, and the wealth of this world will be like a dream after death. Whoever sees something in a dream sees it as long as he sleeps, but when he wakes up, he sees nothing, but only remembers the dream. So a rich man, while he lives, sees his wealth, but when he dies, everything departs from him, like a dream, and has nothing in himself except memory and an evil conscience, for he collected treasures for himself, and did not become rich in God (Luke 12:21). Not so pious, not so! They are rich here, and they will be rich there. Here too they carry and have their treasure in earthen vessels, and there they inherit blessings which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and which has not entered the heart of man (2 Cor. 4:7; 1 Cor. 2:9). So, that wealth is true, which is inside a person, and is not separated from him, and goes with him from here to that age - this wealth is piety. And he is only rich who has within himself the treasure of piety. When a person does not have piety inside, then he does not have it outside, no matter how he shows himself. If there is no true fear of God, there is no true piety. For God looks not only at external deeds, but also at the heart and judges by that.