ЗАПОВЕДИ БОЖИИ

“Who is My Mother? and who are my brothers? And pointing His hand at His disciples, He said: Here are My mother and My brothers; for whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:48–50). Fulfilling God's commandments makes us one with God. Spiritual kinship is based on the fulfillment of God's law (2). Begin to fulfill the commandments concerning the small, and you will fulfill the commandments concerning the great: the small leads to the great everywhere. Begin to fulfill even the commandment about fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays or the tenth commandment concerning evil thoughts and desires - you will fulfill all the commandments. “But he who is unfaithful in a little is also unfaithful in much” (Luke 16:10) (6). Take the trouble to spend at least one day according to God’s commandments, and you will see for yourself, you will experience with your heart how well it is to fulfill the will of God (and God’s will in relation to us is our life, our eternal bliss). Love the Lord with all your heart, at least as much as you love your parents and benefactors; evaluate by your strength His love and blessings towards you (go over them with your mind in your heart: how He gave you existence and with it all the blessings, how He endlessly endures your sins on you, how He forgives them infinitely for the sake of your sincere repentance due to the suffering on the cross and the death of His Only Begotten Son, what bliss He promised you in eternity if you are faithful to Him), blessings that are infinitely great and numerous. Next, love every person as yourself, that is, do not wish for him anything that you do not wish for yourself; think and feel for him as you think and feel for yourself; do not want to see in him anything that you do not want to see in yourself; let your memory not retain the evil done to you by others, as you wish that the evil done by you be forgotten by others; do not intentionally imagine anything criminal or unclean in yourself or in others, imagine others as well-intentioned as yourself; in general, if you don’t clearly see that they are ill-intentioned, do for them what you do for yourself, or at least don’t do for them what you don’t do for yourself - and you will see what will be in your heart, what silence, what bliss! Before heaven you will be in heaven, before heaven in heaven you will be in heaven on earth. “The kingdom of God,” says the Savior, “is within you” (Luke 17:21). “He who abides in love,” the apostle teaches, “abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16) (6). What turns you away from fulfilling the commandments of Christ? Flesh and the world, namely the pleasant food and drink that a person loves, which he enjoys mentally and in practice, which coarsens and petrifies the heart, an addiction to exquisite clothing and jewelry or distinctions of awards: if clothing or jewelry is made of very good, colored, delicate material, then care and pity appear, so as not to get dirty, not to stain, not to smoke, not to get dusty, not to get wet, but concern about how to please God with thoughts, words, deeds, disappears, and the heart, so to speak, lives on clothes and adornment and everything is chained to it, but it does not care about God and does not cleave to Him; if he is a priest, then he does not care about praying for the people and becomes not a lover of souls, but a lover of money, an ambitious man, seeking not people, but human things, that is, their money, food, drink, their affection, good opinions and reviews - and flattering them. So, fight against all worldly charms, against the charms of matter that turn you away from fulfilling the commandments of Christ, and love God with all your heart, care with all your might for the salvation of your soul and for the salvation of human souls, and be a lover of souls. Remember that the world, which arose from nothingness, is a real nothingness and will turn into nothingness, for heaven and earth will pass away, and the human soul is God’s breath, the image of the immortal King God, and is itself immortal. Remember all this and turn away from addiction to everything earthly. In addition to the corruptible creation, constantly turn your eyes to the Creator, Who exists in all creation and is constantly looking at you, constantly testing your heart and your thoughts. Do not cleave your heart to any thing and do not make it the god of your heart: there is only one God of our heart - the Lord God who created it, for it is His breath. Do not cleave your heart to any person, that is, to any flesh, for there is one God of our hearts - the Lord God, and to Him alone we must cleave. Clinging to a thing or to the flesh is a lie, demonic deception and the will of the devil (6). The most vital question we must all solve is: what should we do to live? The answer to it was pronounced by the Giver of Life and God Himself: “If you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). So, in keeping the commandments there is eternal life. And the commandments consist of love for God and neighbor (10). You might be interested in: