Поучение в 12-ю неделю. О спасении

“Good teacher,” a certain young man asked our Lord Jesus Christ, “what good will I do, so that the imam will have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16) i.e. what should I do to be saved? The question is very important! A question that should especially occupy every person during his earthly wanderings! Just as a quiet pier constantly appears to the imagination and memory of a traveler sailing across a vast sea, so we, rushing along the waves of the sea of ​​life, must constantly have eternity before our mental eyes and, in the field of temporary life, arrange our fate in eternity. What acquisition have we made on earth that can remain our inalienable property forever? This is our salvation. Whoever has used earthly life to accumulate wealth will leave wealth behind during the transition to eternity. Whoever has used earthly life to acquire honors and glory will have them taken away by cruel death. Whoever used earthly life to acquire salvation will take his salvation with him into eternity and in heaven will forever be comforted by the acquisition made on earth. Beloved brothers! What should we do to be saved? The answer to this question, the most satisfactory answer, is found in the Gospel. The Lord declared that for the salvation of those who do not believe in Christ, faith in Christ is necessary; and for the salvation of those who believe in Christ, it is necessary to live according to the commandments of God. He who does not believe in Christ will perish forever, and he who believes in Christ with his lips, but does not fulfill His all-holy commandments and therefore rejects His works, will perish forever. Otherwise: salvation requires living faith in Christ. When the Jews asked the Lord: “What shall we do, that we may do the works of God?” - The Lord answered them: “This is the work of God, that you may believe in Him whose messenger He is” (John 6:29). Living faith in Christ is a work, and the work of God is so extensive that salvation is completely achieved through it. Such faith is expressed by the whole life, the whole being of a person; it embraces his thoughts, his heartfelt feelings, all his activities. “By this faith, believe, you will have eternal life” (John 6:47). “Behold, this is the eternal life, that they may know thee the one true God, and whom thou didst send, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). Living faith is seeing and knowing God (Heb. 11:27). Living faith is a life devoted entirely to piety and mortification for the world. Living faith is a gift of God. The holy apostles asked Him for this great gift from the Lord when they said to Him: “Add faith to us” (Luke 17:5). Only through living faith can a person renounce the imaginary virtues of his fallen nature and become a disciple and follower of the Lord with the mind and activity befitting a renewed nature. The spiritual palace in which the spiritual treasure is stored and from which the spiritual treasure is endlessly taught is the true faith, there is one, holy Orthodox Church. For this reason, it is necessary for salvation to belong to the Orthodox Church; those who disobey the Church “be like a pagan and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17), said the Lord. In vain do some recognize the sin of the mind as a slight, insignificant sin! As much as the spirit is higher than the body, so much higher is the virtue performed by the spirit than the virtue performed by the body; As much as the spirit is higher than the body, the sin accepted and committed by the spirit is more painful and destructive than the sin committed by the body. The sin of the body is obvious; The sin of the spirit is very often hardly noticeable, sometimes completely unnoticeable for people immersed in the cares of the world. Moreover, he is terrible; the more accurate are his blows; the more incurable are the ulcers they inflict! Struck by a sinful thought, the luminous angel became a dark demon and, expelled from the heavenly abodes, fell into the underworld. He drew there many angels and many people who allowed their thoughts to become infected with false opinions. The Lord, having called the fallen angel the father of lies, also called him a murderer as not abiding in the truth (John 8:44). Lies are the source and cause of eternal death; on the contrary, truth is the source and cause of salvation, according to the definition of the Lord Himself (John 8:32). The Holy Church keeps the holy truth in its bosom. By belonging to it and obeying it, one can have the correct way of thinking about God, about man, about good, about evil, and therefore about salvation. It is obvious that without having the right way of thinking about salvation, it is impossible to have salvation itself. The beginning of salvation is the truth! The beginning of salvation is the right thought! The key to destruction is deviation from the truth with a false thought. Any deviation from the teaching of holy truth and the adoption of false thoughts, contrary to this teaching, is associated with the terrible sin of blasphemy and renunciation of God. We see experimental proof of this in the fall of the forefathers, which began with the acceptance of a false thought; We see experimental proof in all heresies. Of these, some blasphemed God, seeking to reject the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and distort the all-holy dogma of His incarnation, others blasphemed God by attributing Divine virtues to man 132; others blasphemed God, calling the Holy Spirit a creature; others blasphemed God, rejecting the action of the Holy Spirit in church sacraments and calling them a human invention 133. Finally, some blasphemed God, demanding disdain for living according to the commandments of Christ, craftily keeping silent about the dogmas of faith, but at the same time killing faith, which for its life necessarily needs works of faith. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20), said the apostle. The greatest calamity before the end of the world must befall those people, according to the teachings of the Apostle, who “have not accepted the love of the truth, how can they be saved. And for this reason, God will punish them, that is, he will allow the action of flattery in the person of the greatest wicked man, who believed a lie, so that all those who did not believe the truth, but were pleased with unrighteousness, will receive judgment” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). By recognizing the villain of villains as God, people expose and thereby confess the dignity of their mind, the dignity of their heartfelt mood. Our way of thinking, or our mind, can be spiritual only when it remains entirely in the truth, having ascended to it by living faith in Christ 134. Departure from the truth is a fall from spiritual heaven into carnal wisdom, into a false mind, into destruction. Beloved brothers! Let us offer our warmest prayer to the Lord, as the apostles offered it, that He would grant us the only means of salvation - living faith. By asking through prayer to receive this gift, we will prove the sincerity of the desire to receive a priceless gift through our own efforts to acquire it. “Let us turn away from evil and do good” (Ps. 33:14, 36:27; 1 Pet. 3:11). With violence, let us tear our hearts away from sin and with violence, let us assimilate virtue to it. Now we stand in the holy church of the invisible God and have the opportunity to ask Him for everything necessary for our salvation; the time will come when we, together with all humanity, will appear before His face in order to give an account of our earthly life. Let us be careful not to bring to God only the vain name of Christians without the deeds required by God from Christians. He promised to give a terrible answer to hypocritical Christians, and he will give it. “Then let us confess to them,” He said, “for I have known you to no one else: depart from Me, you who practice iniquity” (Matthew 7:23). Amen. Ave. Isaac of Syria. Word 28th You might be interested in: