Поучение в неделю о самаряныне. О поклонении Богу Духом и Истиною

“True worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth: for the Father seeks such as those who worship Him” (John 4:23). Beloved brothers! Now we have heard in the Gospel that the true servants of the true God worship Him in Spirit and Truth, that God seeks, that is, desires to have such worshipers. If God wants to have such fans, then it is obvious that He accepts only such fans and servants, and only such fans and servants are pleasing to Him. This teaching was announced to us by the Son of God Himself. We believe in the teachings of Christ! With all love we accept the all-holy teaching of Christ! In order to follow Him accurately, let us consider what it means to worship God the Father in Spirit and Truth. The truth is our Lord Jesus Christ, as He testified about Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Truth is the Word of God: “Your word is truth” (John 17:17; Col. 1:16). This Word was in God from eternity, spoken by God and to God; this Word is God, this Word is the Creator of everything that exists, visible and invisible (John 1:1, 3; Col. 1:16). This “The Word became flesh and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). “No one has seen God anywhere: but the Word of God, the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, is the one who confessed” (John 1:18). He confessed before men, fully revealed God to men, the Son of God, the Word of God; The Son of God revealed to men a truth inaccessible to them, testifying and sealing the undeniable truth with the most abundant teaching of Divine grace. “From His fulfillment we have all received grace: grace and truth Jesus Christ became” (John 1:16–17). This means: Jesus Christ did not deliver any more or less detailed and clear concept of grace and truth, but grace itself, truth itself was essentially taught to people, implanted in people. We have become partakers of the Divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Truth has its own Spirit. This Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth (John 15:26, 16:13). He is the Spirit who proceeds from the Father (John 15:26). He is the Holy Spirit of God (John 14:26). He is the Spirit of the Son (Gal. 4:6) as constantly co-present with the Son, as constituting with the Father and the Son one indivisible and unfused Divine Being. The acceptance of the Truth is at the same time the acceptance of the Holy Spirit: that is why the All-Holy Truth proclaims of Itself that it will send the Holy Spirit from the Father to His disciples. It is natural for the Holy Spirit of Truth to be present there, where the Holy Truth operates, and to impress its actions. In the same way, where the Holy Spirit acts, there is a most abundant manifestation of the Truth, just as the Lord said to His disciples: “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). Depicting the wonderful relationship of the Divine Word to the Divine Spirit, the Lord said about the Spirit: “He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine, and will proclaim it to you. All things are imat the Father, they are Mine” (John 16:14–15). The Spirit proclaims and reveals to men the Son who is natural to Him - the Spirit attracted by men by faith in the Son who is natural to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit builds a true Christian spiritually and transforms him into a dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22); He represents and indwells Christ in the inner man (Eph. 3:16–17). He adopts people to God, making them like Christ, installing in them the properties of Christ (John 14:6). People adopted by God in their prayers relate to Him as a Father, because the Holy Spirit quite clearly and tangibly testifies to the spirit of the person renewed by Him (Rom. 8:16) about the union of this person with God, about his adoption to God. “Because you are sons,” says the apostle, “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). Such worshipers are recognized as true worshipers of God! Such worshipers, worshiping God in Spirit and Truth, are sought and accepted by God. Outside of true Christianity there is neither knowledge of God nor worship. “No one will come to the Father except by Me” (John 14:6), said the Lord. For those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no God: “everyone has rejected the Son, neither having the Father” (1 John 2:23), “whoever does not believe in the Son will not see the life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). It is impossible to approach God, it is impossible to enter into any kind of communication with God except through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Mediator and Intercessor, the only means of communication between God and people! There is no true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ without the Holy Spirit! “No one can,” said the apostle, “say the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not have this one” of Christ (Rom. 8:9). Outside of Christianity there is no virtue worthy of Heaven! “Good,” said the Monk Mark the Ascetic, “cannot be believed or acted except in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit” 111. The natural good deeds of men are unworthy of God, flowing from our fallen nature, in which good is mixed with evil, in which good, for the most part, is barely noticeable in the multitude of evil. Fallen nature is capable exclusively of evil, as God Himself testified: “Man has been intent on evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). “You are evil; you know how to give good gifts to your children” (Luke 11:13; Matthew 7:11). This is the price before the Gospel and God of natural human kindness and the actions that flow from it. In vain does the fallen nature glorify its loud and great good deeds! Such self-praise is evidence of terrible blindness! Such self-praise is an involuntary denunciation of the quality of high-profile human affairs, excited and fueled by vanity. The stench of pride that these watered coffins emit is abominable to God: the incense of humility is pleasing to Him. For this reason, the Lord commanded the renunciation of nature to fallen and blind humanity, not aware of its sad fall, but on the contrary, seeing in it some kind of magnificent triumph, seeking to develop this triumph. For salvation, renunciation of sin is necessary! But sin has become so internalized to us that it has turned into nature, into our very soul. To renounce sin, it has become essential to renounce the fallen nature, renounce the soul (Matthew 10:39), renounce not only obvious evil deeds, but also the highly respected and world-glorified good deeds of the old man; Essentially, you need to replace your way of thinking with the mind of Christ, and replace the activity of attraction of the senses and the instructions of carnal wisdom with careful fulfillment of the commandments of Christ. “If you continue in My word,” said the Lord, “you will truly be My disciples, and you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32). Wonderful and profound words! The direct consequence that follows from them is that sin keeps a person in enslavement solely through incorrect and false concepts. It is equally obvious that the destructive incorrectness of these concepts consists precisely in recognizing as good that which is essentially not good, and in not recognizing as evil that which in essence is murderous evil. “Whoever is of God will listen to the words of God” (John 8:47), said the Lord. Brethren! Let us humble ourselves before the Lord our God! In contrast to the hardened Jews, who rejected both the Lord and His teaching, let us show obedience to the Lord by submitting to His all-holy and saving teaching! Let us put aside the way of thinking brought to us by our fallen nature and a world hostile to God! Let us adopt the way of thinking offered to us by the Lord in His Holy Gospel! Let us follow the Truth and inherit the Truth. Truth frees the human mind from the invisible bonds of error in which sin has bound it. This is not enough: the omnipotent Truth, having brought spiritual freedom to the mind, renewing, reviving it with life from above - the Word of God, leads it to the path of the commandments of Christ, “and the path of unrighteousness leaves it” from it (Ps. 119:29). The soul, animated by the Truth, sings together with the inspired prophet: “The path of Your commandments flowed when You enlarged my heart. O Lord, lay down for me the way of Your justifications, and I will seek and take away: give me understanding, and I will try Your law, and I will keep it with all my heart” (Ps. 119:32-34). Such a soul certainly becomes a partaker of the Holy Spirit, who cannot but be present where the Divine Truth is present and reigns, Who, in His mysterious council with the All-Holy Truth, proclaims about himself like this: “I am a partaker of all those who fear You and keep Your commandments” (Ps. 119:63) 112. As long as man remains in his fallen nature, he is still immersed in the darkness of the deepest ignorance: he does not know how he should pray, and does not know what he should pray for (Rom. 8:26), he is incapable of serving God. Faith in Christ alone brings knowledge of the Truth; faith, expressed by fulfilling the commandments of Christ, attracts the grace of the Holy Spirit into the heart of the believer, just as the divinely inspired prophet said: “I have drawn the Spirit because I desire Your commandments” (Ps. 119:131). One true Christian, a Christian by faith and works, can be a true worshiper of God, worshiping and serving God as Father, Spirit and Truth. Amen. Mark the Ascetic. About the Spiritual Law. Dobrot., part 1, chapter 2 According to the explanation of Rev. Pimen the Great, placed in the Alphabetical Patericon You might be interested in: