Статья 4: О христианской должности ко Христу, Сыну Божию

Chapter 1: About faith in Christ “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Faith and its properties are discussed in the second chapter of the first article of this book. Here we need to offer you more about faith in Christ, dear reader, since all our bliss lies in faith. And since by faith in Christ everyone is saved, no matter who is saved, then for a better understanding of faith in Christ, it is necessary here to suggest that we have been thrown into the ditch of destruction, from which we are saved by faith in Christ, and to briefly touch on God’s wondrous view of us, with which he was graciously pleased to save us, especially for the sake of ordinary people. §338. 1) Our God and Creator, worshiped in three Persons, when he created heaven and earth and all their adornment, then created the man Adam and his helper Eve. From these two the entire human race originated and multiplied. All people have these two as their first parents. 2) Our all-good God created these first parents not like other things, but with some wondrous and humane advice. Creating other creatures, God said: “Let it be,” and it was so (Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 15, 20, 24); “He spoke, and they appeared, he commanded, and they were created” (Ps. 149:5). Before creating man, he said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). He exalted man so highly, above other creatures, that he created him not only by His Divine advice, but also in His image. From this, man, know your high and wondrous original nobility and the incomprehensible goodness of our God. You were created in the image of God! (Gen.1:27). 3) To our created ancestors, and in paradise, a wonderful place of sweets, created, God gave the commandment: “You will eat from every tree in paradise, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat from it, for on the day that you eat from it you will die” (Gen. 2:16-17). 4) Our forefathers did not keep the commandments of God; they ate from the commanded tree (Gen. 3:6). The evil serpent and Satan seduced them into such disobedience and transgression, envying their great bliss. And so they, not listening to God, their Creator, but listening to their seducer and enemy, sinned very gravely before God. Therefore, they lost God’s mercy and grace, with which God honored them in creation, they lost the image of God, and from being saints and righteous, they became unclean, nasty and sinful, and fell under the righteous wrath of God and all misfortunes, temporary and eternal. 5) We, their sons, were infected with this sinful ulcer of our forefathers, and with it we are conceived and born, as the Psalmist sighs and laments about this: “I was conceived in iniquity, and in sins did my mother give birth to me” (Ps. 51:7), and so they became subject to temporary and eternal disaster. We all had to die not only temporarily, but also forever with them, drink the bitter cup of God’s wrath and eternal torment in hell, and be in power and reproach from the devil, whose evil advice we listened to. “For the wages of sin is death,” says the apostle (Rom. 6:23). 6) God, in His great mercy and incomprehensible goodness, “has not dealt with us according to our iniquities, neither has He rewarded us according to our sins” (Ps. 103:10). He also promised to send deliverance and salvation to our ancestors - to them and to the whole world - which means the very words that God said to the serpent: “He (Christ, the blessed seed) will erase your head” (Gen. 3:15). 7) God repeated his fatherly blessing to the human race and his merciful promise many times and revealed it to the holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others. He revealed it to the prophets and commanded them to proclaim and preach the Savior coming into the world, as it is written about in the books of the Old Testament, in this coming Savior the Old Testament fathers believed, and those who believed in Him were saved (Ps. 117:26; Acts 15:11). 8) When the time approached at which God determined for the Savior to come into the world and appear to the world, before His coming a prophet was born from barren and elderly righteous parents - the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth - named John (Luke 1:57-63). This prophet was sent by God to prepare the way for the Deliverer coming into the world, as Zechariah, his father, said to him, born by the Holy Spirit: “And you, little child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways” (Luke 1:76). And God Himself had already predicted about him through the prophet: “Behold, I am sending My angel before You, who will prepare Your way before You” (Mal. 3:1; Mark 1:2). That is why he is called the Forerunner of the Holy Church, because before the coming of Christ, like the dawn before the sun, he preceded and preached the approaching Sun of Truth - Christ. This prophet preached Christ, who had already come into the world, saying: “He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down” (Mark 1:7). And he pointed to Christ, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one of whom I said: A man comes after me, who stood before me, because He was before me,” and so on (John 1:29-30 et seq.). 9) The coming of Christ into the world “was like this: in the sixth month after the conception of John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to the Virgin Mary, who then had her dwelling in the city of Galilee Nazareth, and, coming to Her, he first congratulated Her like this: “Rejoice, full of grace! The Lord is with You; Blessed are You among women!” Then he announced to Her: “You will conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus,” and so on. The Most Holy Virgin, hearing about such an unheard of thing, said to the Angel: “How will this be when I don’t know my husband?” And when the Angel answered Her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You,” and added other words of assurance, the blessed Virgin deigned to do so: “Behold, the Servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." Thus, the Son of God Jesus Christ, by the good will of His Heavenly Father and by the influx and overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, was conceived with flesh in a virgin’s womb (Luke 1:24–38). This God's favor towards us, sinners and lost ones, is celebrated by the Church on March 25 (April 7, New Style). The Holy Church calls this merciful favor of God towards us the Annunciation, because the good news to the Virgin Mary and all creation from heaven to earth through the Angel of God was brought and announced. For this is where our salvation began. 10) Finally, the Sun of righteousness shone from the virgin womb, the Son of God was born from the Virgin, the Heavenly King appeared on earth, “The Word became flesh,” and the Ancient of Days was wrapped in swaddling clothes, like a child, wrapped, the Invisible One appeared, and He who nourishes all flesh deigned to feed on mother’s milk. At His birth, the holy angels sang the glory and praise of God: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!” (Luke 2:14). The Church celebrates the Nativity according to the flesh of the Son of God our Savior on December 25 (January 7, New Style). 11) The born Son of God on the eighth day was circumcised according to the law of Moses, and “they gave Him the name Jesus, which the angel called before He was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:21). Jesus means Savior, “for He saves His people from their sins” (cf. Matt. 1:21). Let us pause here, dear reader, and marvel at the goodness of God. He who has no filth received circumcision. He received the name and name of He, whose race and name cannot be expressed. Jesus was named in order to show by his very name that He is the Savior of the world and leads people His own, not in Canaan, like Joshua, but in the kingdom of heaven. He was called the son of man, who on earth had no beginning. He became visible, who by His nature was invisible, He who was unapproachable by the angels, Who clothed the sky with clouds. The Son of God received this great embassy: “Bless the Lord, my soul!” 12) When forty days had passed from birth, he was brought to the church of the Lord by the Holy Mother, in order “to present Him before the Lord according to the law of Moses.” At that time, according to God’s providence, the righteous Simeon, an elderly man, came to the church of the Lord, who was promised “that he would not see death until he saw Christ the Lord.” As soon as he saw the baby Jesus brought into the church of God, he knew by the Holy Spirit that the baby was the Messiah, promised by God and preached by the prophets. And taking Him with reverence in his arms, he blessed God and joyfully exclaimed: “Now You are letting Your servant go, O Master, in peace, according to Your word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all nations,” and so on (Luke 2:22-31 et seq.). And this marks the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2 (February 15 according to the new style. – Ed.)). 13) Being twelve years old, Jesus, the Son of God, on the feast of Easter went up to the church of God, and sitting in the midst of the teachers, listened and questioned them. “All who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers” ​​(Luke 2:42–47). Although he was a youth in age, at that age the hypostatic wisdom of God acted and was shown, for He is God’s power and God’s wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24). 14) About thirty years of His life on earth (Luke 3:23), Christ was baptized in the Jordan River by the prophet and Forerunner John (who is mentioned in paragraph 8. Then the Holy Spirit appeared over Him in the form of a dove, and the Heavenly Father testified with a voice from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16–17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22) Here the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity was clearly revealed to us: the Son was baptized in the flesh, the Father testified from heaven. Thus, the Trinitarian God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, provides for our salvation! just as we are baptized, we are washed from the defilements of sin by baptism and are sanctified. Christ had no sin, and therefore He did not need to be washed from sin, but by His baptism He sanctified and established our baptism. 15) After baptism, the Son of God “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil,” and was tempted by him, and defeated the tempter (Matthew 4:1–11). Stay here and marvel at the goodness and humility of the Son of God. Being God, He allowed the evil and unclean spirit to approach Him and tempt Him in various ways. And so he showed that everyone born of water and the Spirit and who begins to serve the Lord must be tempted, as Sirach says: “My son! If you begin to serve the Lord God, then prepare your soul for temptation” (Sir 2:1). He defeated the tempter, and He conquered for us, so that we might overcome those defeated by Him with His power. 16) After suffering temptation and victory, Christ emerged from the desert and went to preach the holy Gospel, which He brought to earth from the bosom of His Heavenly Father, and with it revealed to us all His goodness and love for mankind, saying: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). 17) At the beginning of His sermon, He gathered twelve disciples from simple, low-born people, whom He called apostles, so that they would be His obvious witnesses to the whole world, as He Himself told them after His resurrection: “You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And the Apostle John with his brethren, the other apostles, says: “For life has appeared (that is, Christ, the Word of the Father), and we have seen and testify, and proclaim to you this eternal life, which was with the Father and appeared to us” (1 John 1:2), and again: “And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). 18) With the twelve apostles, moving from place to place, and from city to city, and from village to village, He brought His holy Gospel and sowed the seed of the saving word of God; planted faith in human hearts and showed the way to eternal life and the heavenly kingdom; taught true reverence and worship, which occurs “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24); taught love for God and neighbor, meekness, humility, patience, mercy and other virtues. What he taught in word, he showed by deed and example. Therefore, He ordered us to learn immaculate Christian life from Himself, as from a living image and a pure mirror. “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29), and again: “I have given you an example, that you also should do the same as I have done to you” (John 13:15). 19) He performed glorious miracles: he healed the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the paralytic, cleansed lepers, cast out demons, raised the dead, fed many thousands of people in the desert with a few loaves of bread, and performed other supernatural deeds. By this he showed people that He is the Messiah, promised by God and preached by the prophets, as John the Baptist Himself, through His disciples asking Him: “Are you the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” - answered: “Go, tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:2-5). As if to say: from My works, note that the time has come about which Isaiah spoke: “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will be clear" (Is. 35:5-6). Note here, Christian, that Christ did not work miracles in the same way as His saints work. The saints work miracles through prayer and the name of Christ, and not by themselves. Christ Himself, as God, worked miracles. For God alone can work miracles. 20) People, listening to the heavenly, saving and comforting teaching of Christ and seeing His glorious miracles, followed Him in great numbers, like sheep following a good shepherd, some wanting to be healed of their ailments, others wanting to listen to His holy teaching, and everyone received from Him what they desired and sought with faith. “And all the people sought to touch Him, because power proceeded from Him and healed everyone” (Luke 6:19). 21) The lost sheep heard the voice of the good Shepherd and knew Him. Harlots, publicans and other sinners came to Him, as St. Luke says: “All the tax collectors and sinners came to Him to listen to Him” (Luke 15:1). And they accepted the healing of their spiritual ulcers, the remission of sins. Thus, the Christian, Christ the Son of God, living on earth and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, became all things to all: to those in darkness He is light, to the blind sight, to the deaf hearing, to the dumb speech, to the paralytic healing, to lepers cleansing, to the dead resurrection and life, to sinners salvation. Let us also approach Him, who does not walk on the earth, but sits at the right hand of God, let us approach with faith of the heart, and not with our feet, and, having declared our wounds and ailments, we will raise our voice to Him: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on us!” He who did not despise anyone who comes to Him with faith will not despise us either. But let us see what reward His people gave Him, whom He came to seek and save. 22) The glory of Him as an unheard-of teacher and miracle worker, which spread everywhere, inspired the envy of the Pharisees, scribes and teachers of the law, so they variously blasphemed the Son of God and tried to darken His glory, but “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5). The friend of envy, malice, followed and taught them to kill their Messiah, therefore they sought to kill Him, but could not, for the time of His suffering had not yet come. 23) The Son of God, foreseeing that He should drink the cup of suffering from His lawless people, predicted this to His disciples, “that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and high priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again” (Matthew 16:21). 24) When the time of His saving suffering approached, He, taking three of His disciples - Peter, John and James - ascended a high mountain, where he began to pray, and “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white like light.” Two prophets appeared there, Moses and Elijah, whom the apostles saw and talked with Him. Then they heard a voice that came to Him from magnificent glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to him." Frightened by that Divine voice, the apostles fell prostrate to the ground (Matthew 17:1–6; Luke 9:28–35). Let us pause here too, dear reader, and turn our intelligent eyes to the Divine glory of the transfigured Lord. The apostles, having seen the glory of Christ as much as they could see, felt such joy and sweetness in their hearts that Saint Peter could not remain silent and exclaimed to Christ: “Lord! It is good for us to be here” (Matthew 17:4). The apostles saw only a certain part of the glory of Christ and were so delighted - what joy will there be in the elect of God in the next century, where He will show them all His Divine glory! Let us also try to see that glory through His grace, and we will despise the glory of this world. 25) When the time had already come for Christ the Son of God to suffer for the salvation of the world, He went to Jerusalem, sitting on a donkey. People, hearing about His coming, came out of the city to meet Him, some of them spread branches on the path along which He was traveling, others laid down their clothes, others held branches from date trees in their hands and exclaimed: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:7–9; Mark 11:7–10; Luke 19:35–38; John 12:14–5). Note here, Christian, with what glory Christ went to Jerusalem. For what? To His free suffering and blasphemous death on the cross. For whom? For me and you, who died. From here know His great love, which thirsts for our salvation. Note also human fickleness. The same people who exclaimed to Christ: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” then cried out against Christ to Pilate: “Take, take, crucify Him!” (John 19:15). From this, learn to despise human glory and praise, for whoever is praised now is cursed later. But let's see what followed after the people's rejoicing in Christ. 26) The rejoicing of the people at Christ prompted the scribes, Pharisees and Jewish bishops to great envy and malice. Therefore, both before and even more so then, having gathered, they consulted on how to destroy the One who had come to save them. But because of the people, they could not do this obviously, since everyone adhered to Him, listening to His teaching. Then a vessel of destruction was found, one of the twelve, the ungrateful disciple Judas Iscariot. He joined their disastrous advice, and for thirty pieces of silver he sold them his priceless Teacher, and with kisses and flattery he delivered Him into their hands at night (Matthew 26:14-16, 47-50). Note here, Christian, what the love of money does to its lovers. Judas was not afraid to sell the priceless Christ, his Benefactor and Teacher, for such a small price, and thus bought himself eternal destruction. The same will follow for other lovers of money, who are not afraid to do any evil in order to get rich, “for the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10). 27) The tradition of Jesus Christ the Son of God was carried out by a traitor in this way: after eating the Old Testament Passover and the Last Supper, which the Church commemorates on Holy Thursday, the Son of God with the apostles came to a place called Gethsemane, and, taking Peter, James and John, His chosen disciples, and departing somewhat from the other apostles, “began to mourn and yearn” (Matthew 26:36–38). Then, retreating a little from them, he prayed to His Heavenly Father, kneeling and bowing His face to the ground, and he made such a prayer three times, as the Holy Evangelist narrates (Matthew 26:39-44). Since Judas the traitor knew that Jesus had gathered with His disciples many times in that place, taking (with him) servants from the bishops and Pharisees, he came there with lanterns, lamps and weapons. He came with lamps because it was night then (John 18:2-4). And to make it more convenient for him to deliver the Son of God into their hands, he gave them the following sign: “Whoever I kiss is the one, take Him” (Matthew 26:48). And immediately approaching Christ, he said: “Rejoice, Rabbi (teacher)! And he kissed Him” (Matthew 26:49). And thus the slave and flatterer betrayed his Lord into the hands of the enemy. Then those who came to take Christ bound Him (John 18:12). The apostles, seeing such a villainous undertaking, “left Him and all fled” (Mark 14:50). So Christ, taken by the hands of the lawless and bound, is brought to the bishop Caiaphas, where the scribes and elders gathered (Matthew 26:57). 28) Here the brought Son of God suffered an unjust judgment from lawless judges, where various and false slander was brought against Him from false witnesses, against whom He was silent: “Jesus was silent” (Matthew 26:59-63). Then they condemned the Judge of the living and the dead to death: “They answered and said, “I am guilty of death” (Matthew 26:66). Condemned to death, the Immortal, the Lord of death and life, was spat on, struck on the cheeks and variously tormented and abused throughout that night (Matthew 26:67). 29) When the day came, they bound the Son of God, brought him to hegemon Pilate and asked him to kill Christ by death on the cross, and although he refused to do this, seeing His innocence, however, because they strongly insisted and frightened him: “If you release Him, you are not a friend of Caesar; “Everyone who makes himself a king is an adversary to Caesar” (John 19:12), - committed according to their will and request, he delivered the innocent into the hands of the lawless in order to crucify him (John 19:16). 30) Then, taking the Son of God, mocked, ridiculed, wounded, tortured, and laying on Him His cross, aggravated with our sins, they led us to greater dishonor and suffering, that is, to crucifixion: “And, bearing His cross, He went out to a place called the forehead” (John 19:17). And so Jesus Christ, the Son of God, after accepting many dishonors, ridicule, blasphemy, insults, torments, crucified on the cross between two thieves and death on the cross, concluded His feat, accepted for our sake and for our salvation (John 19:18). This day, on which Christ suffered, is called the Great Heel by the Holy Church, because on this day the Son of God accomplished the great work of our salvation, as He Himself, dying on the Cross, exclaimed: “It is finished!” (John 19:30). 31) The death of Christ was followed by signs and wonders: “the curtain in the church was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook; and the stones dissipated; and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised again” (Matthew 27:51–52 et seq.). 32) The Son of God, who died for our salvation, was buried, and His most holy flesh rested in the tomb for three days and three nights, as He Himself foretold: “As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40). 33) On the third day, after His death on the cross and life-giving, the Son of God rose from the dead (Luke 24:7, 21; 1 Cor. 15:4; Acts 10:40). By rising from the dead, Christ showed us that He is the conqueror of death, sin, hell, the devil and all our sins, and thereby assured us that we, the dead, will rise when the time determined by God comes. This day of the Resurrection of Christ is called Easter. Easter means “transition,” for those who believe in Christ through His death and resurrection from death to eternal life, and from earth to heaven, pass, as the Holy Church sings on the day of the Resurrection of Christ. 34) After His resurrection, Christ did not soon depart from the earth, but remained for forty days and appeared to the holy apostles and other faithful, speaking to them about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). 35) After forty days, from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, before the apostles he ascended into heaven and sat down on the right side of God the Father (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9–11). Let us linger here, beloved Christian, and marvel at the greatness of God’s goodness. Look at the height to which human nature has been exalted, hypostatically united to the Word of God! At the right hand of God sits Christ with His glorified holy flesh. For our sake he was born on earth, lived, suffered, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, and sits in the glory of the Father, and intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34). Thank God for this, who favored this. Rejoice in spirit and triumph, spitting on the whims of this world as if on feces, try to achieve by the grace of God the fate of those being saved, and see face to face in the glory of the reigning Son of God, whom you now see by faith. Christ, the Head of the faithful, ascended into heaven, and the spiritual members of His body, true Christians, will also ascend. Christ was glorified, and His faithful servants will be glorified with Him, and they will appear to Him as their King, dressed in vestments embroidered with gold and embellished (Ps. 44:14). They will be clothed in the purest purple of His justification, like the sons of a king, and will reign with Him forever and ever. Consider this glory of true Christians and the empty titles of this world, ranks, glory, honor, with which the sons of this age are consoled, consider them as nothing. You truly recognize this when by faith you reflect on the future glory of the sons of God. May our Redeemer, the Son of God, vouchsafe us a part of that. 36) Christ, who ascended into heaven, sent from His Father the Heavenly Holy Spirit on the apostles and on all flesh, as He promised: “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive” (John 14:16–17). But He Himself promised to continually remain with the faithful “until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), for “having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). 37) The holy apostles, enlightened and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, carried this ineffable wealth of God’s goodness throughout the entire universe; The Son of God, who came into the world in the flesh, was preached; faith in Him was planted in human hearts; idolatry was refuted, the darkened peoples were enlightened by the darkness of God’s ignorance; the eyes of the hearts of those who were blinded were opened to the knowledge of the true God; founded the Church of God on the face of the whole earth; they gathered a single blessed herd from different nations, like wild animals; They taught to honor the Holy Trinity - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the one God; They kindled the fire of God’s love in the hearts of believers and confirmed the hope of life and bliss of the future age, as it is written about them: “They went and preached everywhere, with the Lord’s assistance and strengthening the word with signs that followed” (Mark 16:20). 38) By the saving teaching of these God-speaking preachers, the Holy Church, scattered over the face of the whole earth, is enlightened, instructed, built up, saved, and from the deplorable vale of this world to the high and heavenly Zion, to its King and immortal Bridegroom, with the help of the Holy and life-giving Spirit, where not by faith, but face to face, His purest and holiest beauty is granted see. 39) After the blessed death of the apostles of the saints, their successors arose - the saints of Christ, shepherds and teachers, who, with the same word of teaching, shepherd their Church of Christ, instruct, confirm and send, with the help of God, into the heavenly fence, and themselves, having preserved the faith and perfected the course, resettled there through their labors and exploits - which will happen until the end of the century, for the gates of hell They will not prevail against the faith of the Church of Christ, which was built on rock (Matthew 16:18). We see, Orthodox Christian, the first coming of our Savior into the world. We also expect the second, according to the false promise: “This Jesus, who has ascended from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him ascending into heaven,” which is what the Angels of the Lord said to the apostles looking at the ascended Christ (Acts 1:11). These two comings of Christ are not equal, as we see in His holy word. The first was quiet: “It will come down like rain on a fleece, and like a drop falling on the ground” (Ps. 72:6). The second is terrible and quick: “for as lightning comes from the east and is visible even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man,” says Christ about Himself (Matthew 24:27). The first was humble, for he came in the guise of a man and a slave to talk with people and slaves, in order to draw everyone to Himself by His humility. The second will be glorious, for “the Son of Man will come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him” (Matthew 25:31). In the first he came “to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). In the second he will come to judge and reward everyone according to their deeds: the faithful who remained in faith to the end will be led into eternal bliss and the kingdom of heaven, and the unfaithful and those who have not kept the faith will be subjected to eternal punishment. And so “these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). Thus will the entire viewing of the Son end. Then a blissful eternity will begin in heaven, a most unfavorable and disastrous eternity in hell. Then some will reign and have fun endlessly, while others will suffer and suffer endlessly. Note here, Christian, that Christ, Who came into the world to call sinners to repentance, suffered and died for sinners, the same one will judge unrepentant sinners, and how quiet, humble, meek and merciful he was to sinners in the first coming, so much anger and rage will he pour out on unrepentant sinners, who despised His grace, so that they will say to the mountains and stones: “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; For the great day of His wrath has come, and who can stand?” ( Rev. 6:16–17 ). § 339. You, Christian, have seen the coming of the Son of God into the world, briefly presented, about which His holy Gospel tells us in detail. But know that there will be no benefit if you hear only about Christ who came into the world, but do not have true and living faith in Him. For many pagans hear that Christ came into the world and performed miracles, but they do not believe. Even the devil himself with his evil angels knows about this and trembles at His holy name, but this knowledge is completely useless for them. Likewise, knowledge of Christ’s coming into the world will not benefit Christians if they do not have living faith in Him in their hearts. And in order to have living faith in Christ, everyone must recognize and acknowledge their spiritual poverty and damnation, as stated above. For true faith in Christ provides living and real consolation to the soul. And in order to receive consolation, one must feel grief, sadness and fear of judgment. For consolation is consolation for the sad, and medicine is given to the sick, as Christ says: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Matthew 9:12). True knowledge of the forefather's sin and every disaster that follows does not allow a person to have fun madly, but keeps him in heartfelt contrition, fear and sadness. Judge for yourself how it is possible to rejoice in someone who has an incurable disease inside him and is clearly in danger of death. The evil of our forefathers incurably infected our soul with all its powers, so that man became blind in mind, disobedient in will, and turned away from God in heart. Whence it follows that he cannot distinguish between good and evil, and often chooses evil instead of good, calls virtue vice and vice virtue, rejoices over what is evil and harmful to him, and grieves over what is beneficial to him. Such destructive darkness has seized the human mind. The heart and will of man conceives and wants nothing else but contrary to the will of God, “for the intent of the heart of man is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). Notice this evil in your little child, how in it this evil seed grows into its evil fruits. What pride, anger, rage, envy and enmity it shows! How he screams and rages in anger! These are the fruits of the serpent's seed sown on the human heart. Who could know the evil that hides in the human heart, if it did not show itself through external signs? The more a person grows according to age, the more evil arises from his heart, and as years increase, soul-destructive passions and carnal lusts multiply and rise. Here there appears fornication, covetousness, pride, pomp, conceit, arrogance, malice, love of glory, love of money, hypocrisy, lies, deceit, flattery, cunning, slyness, theft and all untruth and all evil are shown. All this leads the poor person to nothing other than eternal destruction and death. A law was given from God to prevent this evil and to restrain a person going to eternal destruction, but he only showed human weakness, and did not heal, he denounced, but did not help, he showed sin, but did not take away sin, he threatened execution, but did not free him from execution. Therefore, God's holy word concluded that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the whole world has become guilty before God" (Rom. 3:23, 19). And from there, eternal execution followed for the whole world, according to the severity of God’s truth, for the eternal and infinite God was angry and saddened by the sins of the world. None of the people could free themselves from this heavy debt in any way, no matter how hard they tried, for God, grieved, angry and dishonored by human sin, is infinite. But it was absolutely necessary for everyone imprisoned to be imprisoned in eternal prison for his debt and to pay the irritated truth of God with eternal execution. But none of the people could please God on their own, for everyone by nature is born a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3), is conceived in iniquities and is born in sins (Ps. 50:7). And the law of God, which must be completely fulfilled, no one could, and cannot, fulfill completely, being inclined and attracted to all evil by forefathers’ sin - and this evil is felt in their flesh by the regenerated themselves (Rom. 7:18-24). That is why the saints themselves, driven and incited by this evil, fell and are falling into grave sins, as we read in sacred and church history. And these falls show that every person can commit all kinds of sins if the grace of God does not strengthen him and help him. From here, Christian, learn to recognize your weakness, your poverty and your spiritual damnation. From here, note how great the evil is - the evil that we cannot mourn until death, the sin of Adam, the seed of the serpent, poisonous and deadly, spilled over all the powers of the soul and body - how great, I say, the evil lies in our hearts, from which we cannot get rid of and which we cannot defeat with our own strength. The Holy Scripture describes fearfully and pitifully a person who has not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. “The fool said in his heart: “There is no God.” They have become corrupt and become vile in their deeds: there is none who does good. The Lord looked down from heaven on the sons of men to see whether there was one who understood or sought God. All have turned aside, all have become completely worthless: there is none who does good, not even one” (Ps. 13:1-3). And again: “Their throat is an open tomb; they deceive with their tongue; the poison of asps is on their lips. Their lips are full of slander and bitterness. Their feet are quick to shed blood; destruction and destruction are in their ways; they do not know the way of the world. There is no fear of God before their eyes,” says the apostle about the Jews, who had the law of God, handed down to them, but lived lawlessly, as he further adds: “But we know that the law, if it says anything, speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth is stopped, and the whole world becomes guilty before God” (Rom. 3:11-19). If it is said that such iniquities and corruptions were among those who had the law of God and boasted in God, what can we say about the pagans, who, like wild animals, lived and did only what pleased their senses and what their unreasonable hearts plotted and lustted? The terrible darkness of delusion covered and engulfed their hearts. It was not enough for them to honor the sun, moon, stars and other creatures of God instead of God; they deified the passions themselves: uncleanness, drunkenness, anger, rage, ferocity. All this evil and abomination from original sin, living in the human heart, occurred and spread. For every idol in itself is nothing (1 Cor. 8:4). Silver, gold, wood, animals - all these are creations of God, created for the benefit of the Creator, but they are an abomination before God and turn into destruction for man not on their own - for God’s creations are very good (Gen. 1:31) - but from the will of the heart of man, for man gives and devotes his heart to God. The sun, moon, stars, animals, livestock and every animal, also fire, water and other elements, bread, wine and so on were created to serve man, so that by using them he would know the Creator and thank Him and serve Him. But a blinded person does the wrong thing: what should serve him, he serves, and what should be obeyed, he subdues his soul and heart. Every abomination first begins within, in the human heart, and then proceeds and appears outside. Outside the human heart, an idol is nothing, but every idol is in the human heart. The human heart is a vile church, filled with idols and abominations. It invented all kinds of idolatry and brought it into action. All kinds of evil and godless abomination are hidden there. And if it is not purified by faith, nothing else conceives and gives birth but evil and ungodly fruits. And although many, not purified by faith and not regenerated by the Spirit, seem outwardly good, they are evil inwardly and are like “whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but within are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27). God judges by the heart and inner state, and not by the outer. Evil, as great as a tree, with its bitter fruits grew from the seed of the serpent, sown on the heart of the forefather Adam, and in our conception and birth of the flesh, it pours onto our hearts like a deadly poison and infects all our mental and physical powers, so that by nature nothing else can be thought and done but vain, indecent and evil. Now consider, Christian, that there is a person in himself without Christ, if he can neither think, nor want, nor do anything pleasing to God without His grace, as Christ Himself said: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), - he is like a withered rod, which is only fit for burning. And so man is nothing other than an abomination and stench before God, from which His most holy eyes turn away, and therefore is subject to nothing other than curse, condemnation and eternal torment. Adam plunged us into this evil and disaster through his fall, but Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to deliver us from all that evil. He, appearing in the flesh, became an intercessor and became a mediator between God, angry with our sins, and the people who angered Him. He fulfilled the law of God and the will of God completely, so that “he committed no sin, and no flattery was found in his mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). He took upon himself the sins of the world in order, like the spotless Lamb, to cleanse them. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” the holy Forerunner pointed to Him to the whole world (John 1:29). “God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). And “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2), and so on. Having taken our sins upon Himself, He also took the execution due to us for our sins, for there are no sins without execution. “The Lord laid the sins of us all on Him. He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities” (Is. 53:5-6). We were worthy of eternal rejection, condemnation from the face of God, and torment in hell with the devil and his evil angels as apostates and destroyers of His Holy Law, but Christ, the Son of God, the King of glory and our Lord, took this execution of ours upon Himself, and for us, His indecent servants, we were so terribly blasphemed, ridiculed, dishonored, mocked, wounded, tormented, and such blasphemy He died by death, and so He delivered us from the eternal punishment that we deserve, and He earned us God’s blessing, mercy, grace and eternal life, which we are unworthy of, from His Heavenly Father. Thus, He became for us the most perfect cure against all our misfortune and wretchedness, and the living and most famous source of all true bliss. He is our Liberator from captivity and the power of the devil. He is the Healer of our ulcers, with which we were mortally wounded by an enemy like a thief. He is the Light against our darkness. He is the Physician against our infirmities. He is Wisdom for us against our madness and bewilderment. He is the Consolation against all our sorrow. He is Life and the Source of life against our death. He is the Justification against our sins. He is the Intercessor against our slanderers. He is Peace and Tranquility against our evil conscience. He is Victory against our enemies. He is our Helper in our battle against the devil, the flesh, the world, sin and our other enemies. He is our Intercessor against the wrath and judgment of God. He strengthens us in our weakness, exhaustion and cowardice. He is the Path and Leader to eternal life, bliss and the kingdom of heaven. In a word, He “has become to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). We were blind, but He became wisdom for us. We were sinners, - He became our justification. We were filthy, - He became our sanctification. We were captivated by the devil, - He became our deliverance. This is His highest beneficence and mercy, both to the whole world and to me and to you, man. He is my and yours, redeemer, redeemer, intercessor, helper, comforter, justification, sanctification, peace, resurrection, hope in life, at death, after death, eternal life, eternal joy, glory and bliss, if we truly, heartily and unfeignedly believe in Him. For this, let Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, receive thanksgiving and glory from us, the unworthy. Amen. § 340. To believe in Christ is nothing other than having learned from the law and heartily acknowledged one’s poverty and wretchedness, which comes from sin and the subsequent righteous wrath of God, - from the Gospel having known the grace of God, revealed to all, to resort to Him alone, that is, Christ, under the protection and patronage, to acknowledge and have His one and only Deliverer and Savior from that calamity, to Him alone, as an undoubted and the unshakable foundation of eternal salvation, all hope to steadily and relentlessly affirm both eternal salvation and in feat against the devil, the flesh, the world and sin during life, at death and after death. To clarify, take the following example for your consideration, Christian. If any monarch were angry with a city for a crime for which the death penalty was imposed on citizens, and in such a calamitous case, the kind royal son would stand up for the citizens, and intercede with his angry father, humbly surrendering himself to the will of his fathers and wanting to endure for the guilty everything that would be determined by the monarch, in order to bring the poor condemned to the mercy of his parent, and so would everyone who would resort to him under protection and protection, brought into the royal favor - then all hope for their salvation and life should have been worthily attributed to that merciful intercessor, for without his intercession everyone should certainly have been executed by death. “The whole world was made guilty before God, because all had sinned” (Rom. 3:19, 23), and therefore all were to die eternally by the righteous judgment of God. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, stood up for all those who sinned: “Christ died for all” (2 Cor. 5:15), and so he became “a mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5), appeasing God, who was angry with His free humility and obedience, and bringing those who were angry into His mercy. And so all who resort to Him, as their Intercessor, for protection and protection, come into the mercy of God through Him, as He Himself says: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). And the Father from heaven testifies of Him: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5). We listen to Him when we forsake our sins, repent and believe in His holy Gospel, as He says: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). Thus, to those who accept Christ the Son of God and believe in Him, all the benefits from God are humanely given: remission of sins, justification, renewal, the grace of the Holy Spirit, helping and strengthening them in their weaknesses, in their exploits against the devil and other enemies, sonship, inheritance, eternal life, and so on, as the apostle briefly concluded: “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for all us, how can He not give us everything?” (Rom 8:32). From the above it is clear: 1) Faith directly sees and accepts Christ as the cause of all the good things promised to man by God, for without Him no one can come to the Father and receive the promised benefits from Him. And so everyone, accepting Christ with true faith, also believes in God who sent Him. He who believes in the Son also believes in the Father who sent Him, and so through the Son he comes to the Father, as He says: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). 2) Just as from the old Adam man in his carnal birth received all evil and disaster, sin and curse, wrath and death, so it is fitting for a believer in Christ to receive from Him all good and blessedness, justification, blessing of God, grace, renewal and eternal life. Just as from Adam he received an unclean heart, sin-loving, money-loving, angry, malicious, envious, disobedient, unmerciful, cruel, flattering, crafty, deceitful, hypocritical, proud and all kinds of evil, so it is fitting for him to receive from Christ by faith a heart that loves purity, is willing, humble, and loves God, brotherly, patient, meek, generous, merciful, obedient, simple, unflattering, and other kindness. For just as from Adam we are born according to the flesh, and in this birth all evil is born with us, so from Christ we are born according to the Spirit, and in this birth we must put off the old man with passions and lusts, and “put on the new man, created according to God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24). And just as in Adam we died spiritually, becoming ineffective, as dead, to do good works, so in Christ and by Christ’s grace we must rise spiritually, that is, to be quickened by faith and His grace to do godly works, “so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Therefore, in someone who is converted and truly believes in Christ, everything turns out to be different than it was before: different inclinations, different desires, different wisdom, different words, deeds and plans than before, as we read in church history about many who repented and were renewed by faith, who, as if awakening from a sinful sleep, began to do the works of God, or more precisely, as having risen from the dead, they began to walk along the path of God’s commandments. 3) Hence, in one and the same true Christian there is a struggle between the flesh and the spirit, between the evil nature of the old and the good nature of the new man, “for the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh: they oppose each other” (Gal. 5:17). 4) It is also clear from here that evil behavior and lawless living are contrary to the Christian faith, and therefore whoever has it has no faith, although he confesses Christ and is called a Christian. Fornication and all uncleanness, theft, theft, perjury, untruth in courts and in every matter, drunkenness, flattery, deceit, lies, malice and the like drive faith from the heart. The confession of the Orthodox faith can be in such people, for many, even living lawlessly, rightly philosophize about faith, many of them preach the faith, but all of them do not have heartfelt faith, which renews a person, changes him from evil to good, and makes him a true Christian. Another is knowledge and confession of faith, another is heartfelt faith, as stated above in the first article. Chapter 2: About love for Christ, the Son of God “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and appear to him Myself.” And below: “Whoever loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words,” says Christ (John 14:21, 23–24). § 341. The very name - Jesus, that is, the Savior, attracts our hearts to his love, Orthodox Christian! “For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” except the name of Jesus, preaches His Apostle Peter (Acts 4:12). You saw in the previous chapter what we were in ourselves and what we became through Him. “We have all gone astray, like sheep; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). He, like the Good Shepherd, sought us out and took us on His shoulders and brought us to His Heavenly Father (Luke 15:5). All of us, like travelers, were exposed by the devil, like a robber, and were mortally wounded. He bowed down to us, so poor, with His mercy, and bowed down to those who lay, and became our neighbors, stretched out His merciful helping hand to us, and raised up those who were lying, and healed those who were wounded with the oil of His mercy (Luke 10:30-35). We were like prisoners, bound by the bonds of our enemy. He, strong in strength, bound our enemy, loosed our bonds (Ps. 115:7), and returned the captivity of our souls (Matt. 12:29; Ps. 67:19). We were, like criminals and apostates, rejected from the face of God. He interceded for us before the righteous court of God and became a mediator, intercessor and reconciliator between God and us. We were all debtors of a thousand talents to our King God and could not pay our debt in any way, but we certainly had to be imprisoned by the judgment of His righteousness in eternal prison and pay with eternal torment (Matthew 18:23-34). He stood up for us, and took upon ourselves our debt, and paid with the truth of God. In a word, from such misfortune, which could not be more bitter and sorrowful, we were also delivered from such bliss, which could not be better and more desirable, mercifully and freely, without any of our merits, Jesus the Son of God interceded for us. Yet Jesus did this for us not through any agency, but Himself. For the sake of us who are lost, He Himself wandered in this world and sought: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He Himself, for the sake of our poverty, was in poverty, He Himself, for the sake of us who were bound, was bound, and with His bonds He loosed our bonds. For us, the wounded, He Himself was wounded, and “by His stripes we were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). He Himself paid for our grave debt, not with silver or gold, but with His precious Blood (1 Pet. 1:19). For the sake of us who died, He Himself died on the tree of the cross, and by His death put to death our death, and revived us who died. With my cross I opened the doors to God’s mercy, eternal life and bliss. This is what the name means - Jesus, beloved by the angels, comforting and sweet to us sinners and wondrous to all creation. Who is He who has honored us so highly and endlessly and eternally lent us? The Only Begotten Son of God, the Word of the Father, the King and Lord of glory, Immanuel, the invisible, incomprehensible and eternal God, who appeared in the flesh like us, except for sin, our Creator, who created us from nothing. Who are we, so highly and unspeakably honored by the great God? Dust from the earth, earth and ashes, His indecent servants, sinners, apostates and His enemies. Truly so, truly so! Paul, His apostle, assures us of this: “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10). For they wanted to steal His Divine honor and appropriate it for themselves, on the advice of the apostate devil (Gen. 3:5). Oh, truly great and incomprehensible is this work of His goodness and love for mankind, that He had such mercy on us, His enemies and apostates! This highest of His love for us, unworthy, requires that we love Him mutually, not in tongue and word, but in deed and truth. If, according to the natural law, we love a simple person who has generously lent us and, without repaying this debt, we become ungrateful, how much more should we repay this debt to the Son of God, who has lent us so much. § 342. Someone will say: “How can we not love Christ?” True, every one of those who profess the name of Christ speaks and confesses this, convinced by his own conscience, and must confess. And I also admit and answer: how can one not love Christ, who is lovingly worshiped and revered by the Angels and all holy souls? Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, the Son according to the flesh of the Most Pure Virgin Theotokos, for the sake of our salvation, who humbled himself so much, who humbled himself so much, who endured all the most terrible things, who died such a shameful death, Christ is our justification, our hope, our resurrection, our eternal life, our glory, our helper and intercessor, the conqueror of death, hell and all our enemies? How can one not love such a lofty Benefactor, in Whom all our bliss consists, such a lofty and incomprehensible Good? Listen, Christian, what it means to love Christ and from what this love is known, and listen, so that this love is not on the tongue and lips, but in the heart, where true love has its place, so that instead of lovers of Christ, you are not His enemies. 1) The lover always desires to be together and inseparably with the beloved. So God, Who is eternal love, because He loves man, when man retreated and separated from Him, deigned to unite with him in the incarnation, and so with His love to draw man to Himself, and graciously dwells in His servants, cleansed by the Blood of Christ, as the Scripture says: “You are the church of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16). This happens between people who love each other. So a friend always wants to be inseparable from his beloved friend, not only in happiness, but also in misfortune. Therefore, it happens that when they are separated, they get sick, complain and cry, because love does not tolerate separation from the beloved. And although faithful and beloved friends are separated in body, they remain inseparable in spirit, hearts and love, for the love of two unites and binds together. Consequently, whoever loves Christ with his heart desires to be inseparable with Christ, to bear his cross and follow Him, to be mocked, ridiculed, embittered by the world, and to die with Him and for Him is not denied. From this we know that the love of those who want to reign eternally with Christ is false, but are ashamed of His humility, suffering and reproach and run away from it. Such are those who, in prosperity, think of thanking God, but in adversity they grumble, do not endure, and turn to seeking help from creation in order to get rid of the misfortune they find. Such people love themselves and their well-being, and not Christ. They are like a shadow, which during the radiance of the sun does not separate from the thing, and whether it stands or moves, the shadow is with it, and when there is no radiance of the sun, then the shadow also retreats. This is what untrue lovers of Christ do: they want to be with Christ risen and glorified, but they do not want to be with the dishonored, mocked, ridiculed, wounded, crucified, they are terrified of Him and run away. Nothing can break a union of true love and friendship. Thus, nothing—neither fire, nor water, nor sword, nor death, nor life—could separate the holy martyrs from their beloved Christ. So Saint Paul, a soul bound by love with Jesus Christ, “not only wanted to be a prisoner, but was ready to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). 2) He who loves his beloved fulfills his will so as not to sadden his beloved, for insulting his beloved is contrary to love and destroys the union of love. So a son tries to fulfill the good will of his father, a wife tries to fulfill the good will of her husband, so as not to offend the one whom she loves with natural love. So, whoever loves Christ the Son of God tries to fulfill His holy will. The will of Christ is signified in His commandments, and so whoever loves Christ tries to fulfill His commandments, as He Himself says: “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me” (John 14:21). Christ’s commandment is that we love one another, as He also says: “This commandment I command you, that you love one another” (John 15:17). (What it means to love your neighbor, and what are the fruits of that love, is said in the chapter on love for your neighbor in the first book). “And Christ wants and commands us to love not only our friends and brethren, but also our enemies: “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). It is from such love alone that one who truly loves Christ is known when he loves not only his friends, but also his enemies, according to His teaching. For pagans and tax collectors and other sinners love those who love themselves, as Christ says: “If you love those who love you, what is your reward? Don’t tax collectors do the same thing” (Matthew 5:46)? To love enemies is a matter of only the Christian soul, filled with the love of Christ, as this is also said in the chapter on love for enemies in the first book. Someone will ask: “How can I love someone who is hostile to me?” True, a carnal, spiritual and unregenerate person answers about himself this way correctly. For for a carnal and self-loving person this is very difficult and almost impossible, but for the faithful and regenerated by the grace of the Holy Spirit it is convenient. Nothing is inconvenient for true faith and love. If you love Christ, Who died for you and me, our enemies, then with eagerness and love you will listen to what He commands to me and to you: “Love your enemies.” What does it matter to you if your enemy is hostile to you? Do not be hostile to him, but see what Christ, the lover of our souls, commands, and with His love overcome the enmity of your enemy, so that by hatred of the enemy you do not ruin Christ’s commandment and do not offend the one who commanded him in such a way that he ruins love. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). Who will say: “The enemy is acting badly and lawlessly?” True, but you will also act badly and lawlessly when you do not love him, but are hostile to him. Only enmity against sin and its inventor, the devil, is righteous. He does evil in that he causes you harm, but you also do evil in that you repay evil with evil. Someone will say: “My heart turns away from him.” You conquer and convince your heart with faith and the love of Christ, and do not what your heart wants, but what your faith and the commandment of Christ requires of you. Christ commands, He who loves you commands, eternal truth demands it, then His holy will pleases, it is useful for you, although the carnal heart, thought and mind of the blind want the opposite. Therefore, we must do this as He wants, and not as our passionate flesh, if we want to love Him. This is our Christian feat, so that we do not what our blind flesh wants, but what God’s commandment commands. 3) The lover loves the one whom the beloved loves. So, when you love your friend, then for the sake of your beloved friend you also love the one whom your friend loves. When you love Christ, you must love every person, your friend and your enemy. For Christ loved everyone so much that he laid down his life for everyone, your friends and enemies, as the apostle says: “Christ died for everyone” (2 Cor. 5:15). That is why he commands us to love our neighbors, because he loves both us and our neighbors, so that we not only do no harm to them, but also do all good, as we do for ourselves, from this we know love for our neighbor. From here it follows that for the sake of Christ, who loves everyone, you must love everyone if you want to love Christ, and from this it follows that for the sake of Christ you will not refuse to feed the hungry, to give the thirsty to drink, to clothe the naked, to bring the strange into the house, to visit the sick and those sitting in prison, to comfort the sad, to rejoice over the happiness of your neighbor, to grieve over the misfortune. This is what love for Christ and your beloved neighbor by Christ requires of you. For the fruit of love for one's neighbor is mercy towards one's neighbor and doing good. From this it follows that those who do not love their neighbor have no love for Christ. They don’t love him because they don’t do him any good. Worse than that are those who not only do no good, but also do evil to their neighbor. Such people, oppressing and embittering their neighbor, persecute and embitter Christ Himself, although they do not notice it. For whoever embitters a slave affects his master, but every man is a servant of God. 4) He who loves his beloved is careful not to offend. For insult and love for the beloved cannot exist together in the lover. Unless the insult comes from ignorance, or from some other weakness, and not from intent and arbitrariness, or when a lover insults a loved one for his benefit. But such an insult comes from love. Just as a father insults his son when he beats him so that he will do well, so a friend insults his dear friend by exposing his mistakes. This is how good shepherds insult the people entrusted to them, so that they may have “sorrow for God’s sake, which produces unchangeable repentance leading to salvation” (2 Cor. 7:10). So the Lord Himself, “whom He loves, punishes; and he beats every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6). But such an insult, which comes from love, is not disgusting to love, it is even a well-known sign and fruit of love. And therefore, here the word is not about this insult, but about one that happens out of anger of the heart. Christ is insulted by every sin as the eternal Truth, and Grace, and the Treasure of all virtues. 6) He who loves always carries his beloved in his heart, not materially (for it cannot be that the whole person, both body and soul, is in our heart), but spiritually. For love has its place in the heart and is one with the beloved. So the son of his father, whom he loves, and the friend of his dear friend, although absent, understands in his heart why he often remembers him, worries so that the opposite does not happen to him, talks about him, asks and checks on how his loved one is, who has been away from him, and often cries that he has not seen him for a long time. This action is seen in natural love. So, whoever loves Christ, the Son of God, always spiritually embraces and carries in his heart, and from this it happens that he often remembers Him, reflects and argues about His loving and saving look, His birth, life on earth, patience, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and rejoices about this, is surprised at this, and with His zeal for this with the Father and With the Holy Spirit he gives thanks, and desires to see face to face his beloved, whom he now sees by faith. Such was Saint Paul, who, burning with love for Christ, cried out: “I have a desire to be separated and to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). 7) He who loves his beloved follows the character of his beloved, and everyone seeks to have friendship with someone like himself. That is why it happens that true friendship cannot exist if it is not between good people and like-minded people. There is no message for the humble with the proud, the sober with the drunkard, the chaste with the unclean, the generous and merciful with the money-lover, the predator and the hard-hearted, but one turns away from the other, and everyone seeks what he loves. Thus, one who loves Christ tries to follow His most good and Divine morals: he is humble, patient, meek, kind, loving, peaceful, simple-hearted, sincere, merciful, merciful, compassionate, and so on, not for the sake of any merit, but for the sake of the simple fact that Christ is like that and has such virtues. 8) The lover thinks the same way as the beloved and agrees with him in everything, and what the beloved strives for, that is what the lover does. Otherwise, there would be no agreement and unanimity in them, when one of them thought about this, and the other about another, the opposite, intended and began, which is contrary to mutual love and friendship, and as a result, mutual love is ruined and friendship ceases. Friendship, as it has been said, cannot exist if not between like-minded people. Christ desires and seeks salvation for everyone. This is true and known, for His coming into the world means and shows that He “wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Therefore, whoever loves Christ is concerned about both his own and his neighbor’s salvation. He who loves with his beloved must have one thought, one effort and care. And although this position applies most of all to the servants of God, it also applies to all Christians, for Christianity is a spiritual body. In a material body, one member provides for the other and helps, for example, a hand wipes a hand, washes, the eyes take care of the whole body, and so on, so in the spiritual body, that is, Christianity, one must take care of the other. This can be prayer, advice, loving reproof. True love wants for its neighbor what it wants for itself, and tries to turn its neighbor away from what it itself is running away from. When Christ, after His resurrection, asked the Apostle Peter: “Simon the Jonah! do you love me? - and Saint Peter answered: “Yes, Lord! You know that I love You,” then he said to him: “Feed My sheep” (John 21:16). As if the Lord would say: “Simon! If you love Me, feed My sheep.” From this it is clear how dear our Lord Jesus considers our salvation. And he teaches those that whoever wants to love Him must strive not only for his own salvation, but also for his neighbor’s. Therefore, the apostle says with regret: “Everyone seeks his own, and not what is pleasing to Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:21). This shows how gravely the shepherds sin against Christ, who, while shepherding, do not shepherd Christ’s sheep, but only feed themselves, for which they are subject to the terrible judgment of God, for the Lord will require his sheep from their hand (Ezek. 34:10). 9) He who loves his beloved wants and seeks glory and honor, and rejoices when his beloved is famous, and saddens when he is dishonored. So a son rejoices when he hears that his father has a good name, and a friend rejoices when his beloved friend is glorified. Love is touched by what it sees in its beloved as its own, and so it attributes the well-being and misfortune of the beloved as its own. Thus, whoever loves Christ seeks in everything the glory of His name, and not his own, and rejoices when His holy name is glorified. The name of Christ is glorified when those who profess His name live worthy of confession and show the faith that they profess with their lips by good deeds. Likewise, for a person, for example, a father, when his children live virtuously, and a master, when his slaves constantly convert, there is honor and glory. For people, seeing the honest life of the children, praise the father, and seeing the constancy of the servants, attribute honor to the master: to know, they say, a good father, that he has such children, and a reasonable master, that he maintains slaves so decently. From this it is clear that Christ is dishonored by the life of lawless Christians. 10) A lover does not love someone who is disgusting to the beloved: a son does not love his father’s opponent, a wife does not love her husband’s opponent, a friend does not love his opponent. For the heart, in which love has its place, cannot be divided, but it cleaves to either one or the other, and cannot love those who are opposite to each other together, but without fail, leaving one, it cleaves to the other, as Christ says: “No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will be zealous for one and neglectful of the other” (Matthew 6:24). This world is disgusting to Christ, therefore, whoever loves Christ does not love this world, according to the teaching of the Apostle: “Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15). The world here is understood not as heaven and earth with their fulfillment, but as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” as the apostle teaches there (1 John 2:16). Through this, Satan, like Adam in paradise, through eating from the commanded tree, takes us away from Christ and obedience to Him due. Wealth, honor, glory and the pleasures of this world are a pleasant sight for our flesh; it points to them; it is seduced by Satan, the ancient serpent, as Eve pointed out to Adam the apple of the commanded tree, and wants to turn the heart away from the love of Christ and turn it to His creation, and to love the creation instead of the Creator. The heart, embraced by the love of Christ, turns away from this evil advice, although in appearance it seems good. At the same time, know, Christian, that there is another way to have wealth, honor and glory, and another way to love. The right possession of wealth, honor and glory does not drive away the love of Christ. Many were rich and famous, such as: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David and others - like many pious kings and high officials today - but they truly loved Christ. But the love of wealth, honor and glory of this world is not compatible with the love of Christ, but one drives out the other. He cannot love Christ while he loves silver, gold, honor and glorification from man. On the contrary, he does not love silver, honor and human glory while he loves Christ, according to the word of Christ: “No one can serve two masters,” and so on (Matt. 6:24). No matter how you turn and transform your opinion, you must certainly stick to one of them and cleave - either to Christ and leave the world, or to the world and leave Christ. And from this it is clear that those who are addicted to the world, that is, the honor, wealth and sweetness of this world, leave Christ, and thus destroy the faith, and deny Him with their hearts, although they confess with their lips, as the apostle teaches: “They say that they know God, but deny by their works” (Titus 1:16). 11) True love achieves this: the one who loves does not refuse to die for the one he loves. The love of a lover binds him so tightly to his beloved that it is better to endure everything, even death itself, than to be separated from his beloved, and death and all sorrow are more pleasant to him than separation from his beloved. Thus, love for the human race convinced the Son of God to become incarnate and die for fallen man, and thus appropriate him to himself and become a partaker of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and bring him eternal glory, rather than see him rejected and perishing. Likewise, it is more pleasant for someone who truly loves Christ to endure all sorrow and all death than to be separated from Christ and Christ’s love. True and ardent love is so strong and strong that nothing can defeat it, and nothing can break the union that is connected with one’s beloved. One who truly loves Christ can be bound, imprisoned, shackled, broken into pieces, burned and killed, but he cannot be defeated. The power of love is spiritual, not physical, and therefore, although the body is conquered, wounded, tormented and killed, love cannot be defeated, but on the contrary, the more it shows its strength and strength, the more it endures and suffers. Such was the love of the holy martyrs, who preferred to give themselves over to the cruelest torment and the most bitter death rather than be separated from the beloved Son of God, and many themselves, inflamed with zeal for their beloved Christ, came to the place of torment and to the tormentors, and spontaneously deigned to suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s amazing to us, dear Christians, that people love Christ so much, but what’s more amazing, and our mind surpasses it, is that Christ loved us sinners so much that He was willing to die for us. People love Christ who loved: “It is not we,” says the apostle, “who loved God, but He loved us” (1 John 4:10). Christ loved us, His enemies and apostates. Marvel at this love, Christians! From here “taste and see how good the Lord is” (Ps. 33:9). Note, Christian: 1) That all these actions and fruits of love follow from the fact that the lover is united with his beloved heart and love, so that the two become one. For love from two hearts and souls makes one heart and soul, not materially, but spiritually and likewise, as about Christians in the time of the apostles, Saint Luke tells: “The multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32). 2) You see how strong and strong love is, so that nothing can destroy its union. 3) Just as without love every deed is dead and useless, so with love every deed is enlivened and becomes beneficial to everyone. Without love there can be no good, and where there is love, there is all good. 4) True love for Christ comes from true faith in Christ and from the Holy Spirit. Faith presents Christ to the faithful, for He is true life, true bliss, true and eternal joy and sweetness, and apart from Him there can be no true bliss. And so, by faith, the enlightened heart through the grace of the Holy Spirit is kindled to the love of that highest good, which is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And the more Christ is known, His grace is felt in the heart of the faithful, the more ardent love is kindled for Him, for the more good is known, the more it is loved. For we cannot love good without knowing it, just as we cannot know the sweetness of honey without tasting honey. Therefore it is written: “Taste and see how good the Lord is” (Ps. 33:9). 5) From here you see that a fearless and lawless life cannot be combined with both faith and the love of Christ, as Christ Himself says: “He who does not love Me does not keep My words” (John 14:24). Also, a heart that is addicted to the world has no faith or love for Christ, no matter what external deeds a person does. Everything that is contrary to Christ and happens at will drives out the faith and love of Christ from the heart. And from there it follows that the apostle wrote: “Whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is scary, but true. For as many times a person sins out of will, so many times does the law of God and the eternal destroy and resist the Lawgiver, and as many times as he deviates from the world and cleaves, so many times with Adam he stretches out his hand to the commanded tree. God commanded: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world” (1 John 2:15). 6) From here it follows that Christians who have lost faith, and with faith love (there can be no faith without love), have abandoned Christ Himself, and instead of Christ, carnal lust, selfish lust and worldly pride are worshiped as the triple god. 7) Those who only love their friends and those who love themselves have only carnal, and not Christian love. True Christian love embraces everyone, both friends and enemies. Also, those who richly reward their relatives, for example, children, brothers, fathers, mothers and other relatives, but either completely neglect the poor and wretched who ask for the name of Christ, or send them away, or are content with half a half - all such people love themselves, their flesh and blood, and not Christ and for Christ’s sake. For Christian love is propitiated over relatives and non-relatives. He is her relative who is poor and needy. There she bows down and stretches out her hand, where poverty is declared and the name of Christ is remembered. 8) Those who do good to others in order to be loved do something disgraceful and suffer from selfishness, and here it is not for the sake of the name of Christ, but for the sake of their own benefit, that beneficence occurs. A true lover of Christ does good to those who do not love him, heeding the word of Christ: “Give to him who asks of you” (Matthew 5:42). 9) This also includes those who give alms so that those who receive them will pray to God for them, for here, too, one’s own benefit is sought, and not Christ’s honor and the benefit of one’s neighbor. Otherwise, they would not have given, if they did not rely on their prayers. True love does not seek its own (1 Cor. 13:5). And every work is judged from the end, that is, whether it is done for the glory of God and the benefit of one’s neighbor, or for the sake of one’s own self-interest. Those who receive alms should be grateful to their benefactors and pray for them, but those who give should simply give, without their own benefit, and look only at the poverty of the one asking, whom Christ commanded to have mercy. Whether or not those who receive alms pray, alms will certainly receive their reward, according to Scripture: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). Alms, simply given from a pure and loving heart, are silently prayed, and prayed more than all people. 10) A true lover of Christ should practice not only alms, but also other good deeds, such as: meekness, kindness, patience, abstinence, chastity, humility and other Christian virtues, as Christ taught us by His word and example. If we want to love Christ and please Him, we must live virtuously and do what He taught us in word and deed. In order, with the help of God, to be aroused to the love of Christ, we, Christians, will consider some of its circumstances and with the help of God we will learn: 1) Christ says: “Whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father” (John 14:21). Oh, how comforting this word is! The Son of God offers such great and lofty vows to those who love Him, so that he who truly loves Christ has friendship with the Father and His Son, and where the Father and the Son are, there the Holy Spirit is not separated. Friendship is nothing more than mutual love - to be loved and to love. The human mind does not comprehend this goodness of God. God, the great, immortal, infinite and incomprehensible with man, His creation and His servant, wants to have friendship, and has it, unless someone separates himself from it. “Our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ,” says the apostle to Christians for consolation (1 John 1:3). Therefore, to His faithful, His beloved and those who love Him, He says: “You are My friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). It is a high and great thing to have friendship with an earthly king, and an incomparably greater one with the Heavenly King. Let us love each other, dear Christian, in order to show love for Christ and to have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 2) Christ also says: “I will appear to him myself” (John 14:21). Who will I appear to? To a man, a slave and a sinner. Who will appear? King of heaven and earth, Lord of glory, Son of God and Word of the Father. I will not visit him through an Angel or anyone else, but I will appear to him myself, I will visit him myself, I will come to him myself, “I will appear to him myself.” To whom? To him who loves Me and keeps My commandments. Oh, the power and action of love, which attracts the Lord to the slave, and God to man, and the Creator to creation! O Thy goodness, Jesus! You pour out love into the hearts of those who believe in You, and Your love attracts You to those who love You. Who can truly love You without You? Our heart without You and Your grace is nothing more than a withered rod that produces no fruit. Your love precedes everyone and kindles in our cold hearts love for You, and for Your grace, with which we contribute, You bestow new grace. So everywhere Your goodness goes around and precedes us and follows us. How does Christ appear to souls who love Him? When He lived in the flesh on earth and preached His word, He revealed Himself to everyone, His friends and His enemies. But after His resurrection He showed Himself to some friends how we read. He showed Himself from heaven to Saint Stephen when he testified about Him before his enemies (Acts 7:55–56). And this is the visible appearance of Christ. Spiritually, He appears to His friends when He enters their hearts through His Holy Spirit and enlightens, comforts and brings joy to them. He will appear to all who love Him when He comes in His terrible glory, and will call them to His eternal kingdom, saying: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). Then He will appear to His enemies, but in a different way, that is, as a terrible King and a terrible Judge, from whose wrath they will wish to hide in caves and rock crevices (Rev. 6:16), and will cast them away from Himself “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Let us, Christians, also open our hearts to Jesus who loves us, so that this highly-prepared Guest may visit us through His love for mankind. He wants to come to everyone who does not shut their house before Him: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). Let us open the doors of our hearts to Him now, so that then He too will open to us the doors of His kingdom. 3) Christ also says: “Let us come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). Look, Christian, what grace is given to those who love Christ: it becomes the home and dwelling of the Most Holy Trinity! God the Trinitarian, Father, Son and Holy Spirit deigns to dwell in him with grace! It is a great thing for people to receive the king of the earth into their home; how much greater is the advantage of receiving the King of Heaven into the home of their heart, and not only receiving it, but also having it for the living, as he says: “Let us come to him and make an abode with him.” Blessed indeed is such a heart. What else could there be but peace, tranquility, joy and fun? “The kingdom of God is within him” (cf. Luke 17:21). Even in this deplorable vale, it feels the joy that is poured out abundantly into the hearts of the elect in eternal life. It truly tastes how good the Lord is (Ps. 33:9). “Beloved, having such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” - the apostle admonishes us (2 Cor. 7:1). For the Lord does not dwell in hearts defiled by the uncleanness of this world. “For what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity? What does light have in common with darkness” (2 Cor. 6:14)? For “Our God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), but the love of this world is darkness, “for everything that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from this world” (1 John 2:16). Those who want to receive the king of the earth into their home cleanse the house, much more must he who wants to receive the King of Heaven cleanse the house of his heart his. 4) Just as the sweetness of Christ’s love attracts, so His good deed, which He showed us from one of His strongest love for us, convinces us to love Christ. Remember, Christian, what the Son of God did not do for us, what he did not invent, what he did not endure and suffer for the sake of your wretched and poor soul? What labors and illnesses did he not accept in order to bring us, who had fallen away, to His Heavenly Father? If someone turned the wrath of the king of the earth, who threatened you with the death penalty, away from you, and instead of death asked for your life from him, and, not content with this high mercy towards you, sought a noble and high honorary position for you, deigning to endure every calamity for the sake of it, oh, how zealously and sincerely you would love such a benefactor! Nature itself convinces us of this. Christ, the Son of God, the wrath that threatened us all with eternal death, turned us away from us who believe in Him, and thus delivered us from eternal death; moreover, He brought us into such high mercy with God that “to those who believe in His name He gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:12), and this honor is so high that all the glory of this world is like nothing before it. Every nobility and majesty of this world is only an empty name and title, not having a thing in itself, which is like a bubble of water, or a bottle of arrogant air, which appears externally as something, but has nothing inside. Christian nobility is true, eternal and incomprehensible, which Christ earned for us with His Blood. And so tell me, perhaps, how can we not love such a high Lover and Benefactor? If a small benefactor is worthy of love, even more so is a great one. If someone saves us from temporary misfortune, misfortune and death, or does temporary and earthly good to us, how much more is our Christ, O Christians, worthy of it, for He did not deliver us from temporary misfortune and death, but from eternal life, not temporary, but eternal life, did not intercede for us, not temporary and earthly, but eternal honor and glory. Oh, how insensitive you are, sinful soul, when you don’t feel this! It is truly insensible when you have lent a person a temporary and small loan (little, I say, for everything temporary is nothing compared to the eternal), but you love such a benefactor, you thank him, you honor him, you serve him, and you do everything that pleases him, but Christ, Who eternally and endlessly lent you, Whose benefit shown to you cannot be rewarded with anything, is not even vouchsafed from you, which a benefactor. This is how you place low Christ’s former incarnation, birth, life on earth, patience, humility, suffering and death on the cross for your sake, at which grace the Angels marvel, sing, glorify and magnify (Luke 2:14). Christ, for your sake, did not spare Himself, but for the sake of His name you spare copper and silver, although everything you have is His (and His copper and silver, which you spare for Him). Christ humbled himself for your sake, but for His sake you do not want to give up your pride. For your sake, Christ, being rich, became poor, but for His sake you do not want to give up your stinginess and love of money. For your sake, Christ endured reproach, beatings, spitting, crucifixion and death on the cross, but for His sake you do not want to endure even a reproachful word. For your sake I came down from heaven, so that you, expelled from paradise, could be lifted up to heaven. For your sake I was born flesh, in order to appropriate you, reborn by the Spirit, to myself. For your sake I humbled myself in order to exalt you. For your sake, I became poor, in order to enrich you, the wretched one. For your sake, I endured dishonor and wounds in order to heal and glorify you. I died for you, so that you, the dead, could be revived. It was nothing other than His great love for you and compassionate mercy that attracted Him to such deep condescension and humility. Do you despise His lofty love and grace and do not want to serve and please Him with love, but leaving Him, who truly loves you, do you give your heart to His adversary? 5) What have you found, sinner, in Jesus who loves you that is not pleasing to you? What do you see in Him that would not attract you to His love? Man desires bliss—true and eternal bliss is with Him. Man desires beauty - He is the most beautiful of the sons of men (Ps. 45:3). We want nobility - who is more noble than the Son of God? We are looking for honor - who is more honest and higher than the King of heaven? Is it glory - He is the hypostatic wisdom of God. Is it friendship - who is more amiable and more loving than He? Man loves joy—the joy and gladness of the blessed spirits and elect of God He is. Do you need consolation - who will console you except Jesus? You need peace - He is the King of peace, He is spiritual peace. You are looking for peace - Jesus promises and gives eternal peace to the souls who love Him. If you desire and seek life, He is the source of life. If you are afraid of getting lost, Jesus is the way. You are afraid to be deceived - Jesus is the truth. You are terrified of death - Jesus is life, as he says: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). In a word, all bliss is with Him, and without Him there is no bliss. Look and take note, O poor, sinful soul! Jesus Christ has all the bliss that can be, and true and immovable bliss. His Heavenly Father gave him to us as a doctor against all our misfortunes and a source of all bliss. Read His Holy Gospel as you should, and you will know the truth. If you cling to Him with heartfelt faith, you will have His justification against your sins, deliverance against your captivity, peace against your evil conscience, consolation against your sorrow, consolation against your sorrow, protection against your slanderers, justification against the judgment of God, help against your enemies, refuge against your persecutors, reason and wisdom against your bewilderment and madness, strength in your weakness, life against your death - in a word, every blessing against your damnation. If Jesus is your blessing, what calamity will befall you? If Jesus is your peace and quiet, who can disturb you? If Jesus is your joy, who and what can offend you? If Jesus is your comfort, who can make you sad? If Jesus is your honor and glory, who can dishonor you? If Jesus is your intercessor, who can slander and condemn you? If Jesus is your helper and champion, who can defeat you? If Jesus is your deliverer, who can take you captive? If Jesus is your justification, who can condemn you? If Jesus is your shepherd, who can snatch you up by His hand? If Jesus is King and your Lord, who can enslave you? If Jesus is your life, who can kill you? “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also freely give us all things with Him? Who will accuse God's elect? God justifies them. Who is judging? Christ Jesus died, but also rose again: He is also at the right hand of God, and He also makes intercession for us,” Paul boldly speaks to those who love God (Rom. 8:31–34). Consider, sinful soul, what Jesus is and what He gives to those who love Him. He bestows what “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man is what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). 6) Now turn your eyes to the world and consider what it is and what it gives to its lovers. The apostle presents his image to you and says: “The whole world lies in evil” (1 John 5:19). Evil in cities, in villages, evil in houses, evil on the roads. Neighbor is at enmity with neighbor, a traveler with goods is afraid of robbery: “A man’s enemies are his own household” (Matthew 10:36); the beggar envies the rich, the villager envies the citizen, the dignitary despises the simple, the mob is indignant, the wife suspects the husband, the husband suspects the wife, the master does not believe the slave, the slave flatters and deceives the master. Everyone is afraid of each other. One steals, the other, being robbed, complains and curses. One slanders, the other, being slandered, takes purely revenge on the slanderer. One annoys, another takes revenge on the one who annoyed. From this there are quarrels, abuse, mutual slander, this is followed by fights and bloodshed, hence complaints against each other, they judge and condemn each other, but everyone is wrong. The matter comes to court, then new and greater evil will follow. They invent sarcastic accusations against each other, they try to destroy each other or plunge each other into extreme disaster. They worry themselves in a way that is harmful to their souls, and they also worry those whose duty it is to sort out who is right and who is wrong. So the world is constantly agitated, like the sea, and bothers its lovers. He who loves Christ is not like that. He, like a ship, stands in a quiet, patient harbor, not afraid of wind, storm, or waves. Although the winds of temptation blow upon him and the waves of troubles strike him, he stands safe in the silence of patience. He himself does not enmity with anyone and forgives those who are at enmity, and is so quiet, calm, and peaceful within himself, always and everywhere he carries his treasure with him. He promises peace and presents his bliss to his lovers, but it is deceptive and false. His bliss consists of honor, glory and sweetness, but this bliss is like a sleepy dream, or a bottle inflated with air, which until then seems full and has something until the air comes out, or like a water bubble, which quickly appears and quickly disappears. Look and think about how much the lovers of peace chase after honor and glory. But no matter how hard it is to gain, it is so conveniently lost. And the greater the honor, the more easily it is destroyed, for he has as many enemies as there are envious and power-hungry hearts. Therefore, one must be careful not to lose his honor, because when they envy someone sitting in a high place, they do not want to see him at that height. How difficult it is for one to protect himself from many, especially from those who appear to be friends on the outside, but inside are true and worst enemies! Consequently, either to die by poison or by the sword, or to fall from a height and be imprisoned, or, which rarely happens, in constant fear and care, an apparently bright, but essentially bitter life must be led. This bright, but truly bitter life of the glory-loving people consists of an even more bitter death, which will be followed by an immeasurably bitter and eternal death. Where are now the glorious victors of the universe, for whom it was not enough to own the whole world? How mortals died. Where is their glory that filled the world? She was buried with them in a coffin, or, in other words, disappeared, just like themselves. Those who were dissatisfied with the whole world were imprisoned in a three-arshin place. Those who made the whole world tremble are trampled underfoot by the rabble. Those who wanted to be revered like gods turned to dust, so it is impossible to know where Alexander, the conqueror of the universe, is, and where his last slave lies. And when, with the end of life, everything would end for them. But no, they would like it, but it is not given to them. They must pay for everything to the truth of God that they have done unrighteously in life; they must accept as much torment as they were famous and luxurious (Rev. 18:7). ABOUT! If at least one of them had been able, from the disaster in which they are now found, to appear in the world, having been freed, he would certainly have been in a different and much better opinion than before, living in arrogant and empty pride, and sound advice would have been given to those who wanted to become famous on earth and to ascend to an imaginary deceptive height. How to please those who are content with their lot, who try more to conquer themselves than others, to command eternal glory over themselves rather than others, rather than to seek temporary glory! I would truly admit that there is no greater winner on earth than the one who conquers himself and dominates his passions. But this is a deadly human and general blindness, that we do not believe the misfortune of others until we find out for ourselves; we chase the shadow, leaving the thing itself and the truth; We look for peace and consolation there, where there is anxiety and sorrow. How wise and blessed is he who learns to avoid the misfortune of others! Someone will ask: “What is true honor and glory?” The one that Christ gives to those who love Him. It is hidden in this world and can only be comprehended by faith, but will be revealed in the next century, when “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). People will have this glory, but they will never lose it. The second part, which makes up the bitterness of this world, is wealth. Many people desire and seek it, like honor and glory, but not everyone gains it, and those who do gain it, gain it with much difficulty, treasure it with great sorrow, and lose it with great sadness. How many are there who have lost and are losing the wealth they collected through such labors in one hour! All wealth is subject to fire and thief and other disasters. But although someone will remain in this imaginary well-being until his death, will he take this wealth with him when leaving the world? No, he leaves everything in the world that he had in the world. Silver, gold, expensive stones, lands, estates, peasants, servants, horses, carriages and all the treasure in the world remains, one departs from the light as he entered the light. The small coffin receives and contains both the poor and the rich. Everything else is no longer his, it has passed into the hands of someone else. Here everyone righteously recognizes how foolishly the one who believes in wealth acts foolishly. But what if the wealth was collected through untruth, theft, flattery and other iniquities, as is most often the case? Then, leaving wealth to others, he carries with himself the heavy burden of iniquities. Then, instead of imaginary bliss, true disaster meets him: at the very end, a tormented conscience, terrifying with the judgment of God and eternal torment; after the outcome, the righteous reward according to deeds comes. Then he will recognize the deception and realize that he worked for the profit and self-interest of others, but for the sake of his own destruction. Then he admits from the heart how great a delight it is to gather, “and not to become rich unto God” (Luke 12:21). The rich man who abounds in money is very poor. Disaster is the wealth that takes away from true bliss. There is no profit where there is damage to the soul. It is very bad for a Christian to chase after temporary wealth, which he is soon forced to leave, and to leave the eternal to which he is called. Someone will ask: “What kind of wealth is true and unshakable?” The one that Christ offers us: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20). This treasure of faith, which is hastened by love, is gathered here and revealed in heaven to those who love God. There the treasures of eternal blessings will be opened to them, which “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no one has entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9). The third part of worldly bliss consists of carnal knowledge, banquets, feasts, gaiety and everything that delights the senses. This imaginary bliss is presented as something as long as it is happening and touches the senses, but once it is accomplished and the feeling ceases, then instead of true sweetness, sorrow will follow. Thus, after committing carnal lust, remorse of an evil conscience occurs. So, after banquets and drunkenness, relaxation of the limbs, an increase in harmful phlegm, illness in the head, trembling of the arms and legs, and the entire body, various infirmities occur. I am silent about the blindness of the mind, about disgrace, about dishonor and other fruits of voluptuousness. Who does not abhor a fornicator, an adulterer, and a drunkard? No one prudent will praise someone who often organizes banquets. What can we say about the mental ulcers that sensualists receive from this imaginary bliss? Sweetness is a fishing rod with which Satan catches souls and throws them into hell, a place designated for himself. In the shortest possible time, sensualists enjoy themselves, but they go to hell to drink the cup of sorrowful torment without end. Look at the Holy Gospel, and it will show you that this word is true. There we read that “a certain man was rich, dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted brilliantly every day.” It further tells about him that “the rich man died and they buried him. And in hell, being in torment, he raised his eyes, saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his bosom and, crying out, said: Father Abraham! have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:19, 22-24). After banquets, after feasts, after expensive wines, after fun and sweets, he asks for a drop of water and does not receive it, but hears the answer: “Remember that you have already received your good things in your life” (Luke 16:25). This is the fate and lot of sensualists. This is what luxury and voluptuousness lead to. Oh, sorrowful sweetness, after which such disaster and sorrow will follow! Someone will ask: “What sweetness is true?” The one that holy souls feel from the love of Christ, as they exclaim to Christ in joy and sweetness with the Church: “All you desire, all sweetness, is the Word of God,” and so on (Song of the 9th tone of the 2nd; Song 5:16). This sweetness from sorrow for the sake of God begins and multiplies in humble tears, cheers in sorrows, consoles in adversity, encourages in despondency, encourages in despair, does not leave at death, accompanies in the next century, and there it will be perfected, where love will receive its perfection. This is where the bliss of this world lies, that is, in honor, the lovers of which come to eternal dishonor; in wealth, which forever makes its stewards poor and wretched; in sweetness, whose slaves eternally taste sorrow! And so you see that this tripartite bliss is the same as that of someone who in a dream eats and drinks something sweet, is revered and worshiped by everyone, has found a great treasure, but, having awakened, feels hunger and thirst, sees himself in contempt and poverty. The same certainly happens to those who love peace, for they briefly, as in a dream, revel in the abundance of luxury and worldly fun, are consoled by honor and wealth, but at death and after death, feeling as if awakening from a dream, they see everything contrary. Instead of brief sweets, eternal ones feel sorrows. Instead of wealth, they experience squalor and poverty. Instead of honor and glory, they see themselves in eternal dishonor and disgrace. Therefore, it is righteous and true, but they repent late and become sick, and sigh in distress of spirit. Then they will recognize what worldly joys are, how false and deceptive are the ages of this gaiety, after which true sorrows will follow. Then they confess their error, but at the wrong time. “So we have strayed from the path of truth, and the light of truth did not shine on us, and the sun did not shine on us. We were filled with deeds of lawlessness and destruction and walked through impassable deserts, but we did not know the way of the Lord. What benefit has arrogance brought us, and what has wealth and vanity brought us? All this passed like a shadow and like fleeting rumors. As after the passage of a ship sailing on choppy water, it is impossible to find a trace, nor the path of its bottom in the waves; or like a bird flying through the air, there remains no sign of its path,” and so on (Wis. 5:6–11 et seq.). So this world of joy and gaiety passes away as if they never existed. “For the image of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31). “And the world is passing away, and so is its lust” (1 John 2:17). Finally, this is not true bliss, which people, out of blind reason, consider and affirm as such, but that which is supplied and affirmed by the word of God, which is the rule and mirror of our reasoning and Christian life. Listen, sinful soul, to whom it ascribes bliss. It says: “Blessed is the man who did not follow the counsel of the wicked, and did not take the path of sinners, and did not associate with the company of blasphemers, but His will is in the law of the Lord, and in His law one learns day and night” (Ps. 1:1-2). “Blessed are all those who trust in Him” (Ps. 2:12). “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven. Blessed is the people whose Lord is their God, the people whom He has chosen to be His inheritance” (Ps. 32:12). “Blessed is he who considers the poor and needy; in the evil day the Lord will deliver him” (Ps. 40:2). “Blessed is he whom You have chosen and accepted: he will dwell in Your courts” (Ps. 64:5). “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house, O Lord; they will praise You forever and ever” (Ps. 83:5). “Blessed is the man who has found protection in You,” Lord (Ps. 83:6). “Blessed is the man whom You teach, O Lord, and You teach him from Your law” (Ps. 93:12). “Blessed are they who keep the truth and do righteousness at all times” (Ps. 106:3). “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord; he will greatly love His commandments” (Ps. 112:1). “Blessed are those who are blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who study His revelations: they will seek Him with all their hearts” (Ps. 119:1-2). And Christ, the righteous Judge, pleases: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unjustly because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:3-12). We see such beatitudes and similar ones in other places of Holy Scripture. You see that the word of God does not please the rich, the glorious, and those who are in the joys of this age, but those who study the law of the Lord, those who hope in the Lord, the poor in spirit, those who weep, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who have been driven out for the sake of righteousness, those who endure reproach for the sake of the name of Christ, and so on. What remains for you to do, how, leaving behind the false bliss that the sons of this age believe in honor, glory, wealth, sweetness, seek the true bliss that the word of God promises us Christians? If you leave the world and stick to Christ by faith and love, He will give it to you. Without faith it is impossible to have true bliss, and where there is faith, there is love, for love is inseparable from faith. If you remain in love for the world, the world will destroy you, although it caresses you, as it has destroyed many, for the prince of this world is Satan, who, just as our first parents in paradise were deceived and destroyed by an apple, led away from the source of true bliss - God, and plunged into disaster, so now with the well-being of this world, like a red apple, he deceives and leads away from Christ and leads with him into the eternal trouble and death. True, unshakable and eternal bliss is found only in Christ. Listen and remember what Christ said: “What 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? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward everyone according to his deeds” (Matthew 16:26-27). Then Christ will not ask us whether we were famous in the world, rich, honest, whether we had wisdom, art, eloquence, praise, nobility, an honest and respectable name, and so on. No, he won’t do anything like that, but he will ask how we lived in the world. They were called Christians, but did they have a Christian holy life? They confessed one God, but did they serve one God? They listened to the Word of God preached, but did they live according to its rule? Note also what is written: “Is friendship with the world enmity against God? So whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Christ will judge the peace-loving people, as the enemies of God, and reward them according to their deeds. Chapter 3: Honoring the Passion of Christ “Consider Him who endured such reproach from sinners, lest you become faint and faint in your souls” (Heb. 12:3). § 343. The entire life of Jesus Christ our Lord, which he began and completed on earth for the sake of our salvation, was an everlasting cross. He was born in a den and his midwife was laid in a manger, “because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). There was no room in the inn for the One to Whom belongs heaven and earth and everything in them. Thus, for the sake of us, the proud, He deigned to humble ourselves. He had just appeared in the world and had not yet begun his life on earth when he suffered persecution from the lawless Herod, and the Child, who knew nothing but swaddling clothes, mother’s milk, crying and tears, was sued for murder (Matthew 2:16). Piety does not have time to appear; immediately from wickedness he begins to endure persecution. Further, as it is written, “he was in subjection to them,” that is, to his mother and his imaginary father (Luke 2:51). He obeyed the people, to whom the angels obey with fear and trembling and all creation serves. For our sake, for my sake and for yours, sinner, our Creator obeyed His creation, for our sake, I say, who did not want to obey God, their Creator. Satan, His adversary, was tempted, so He placed Him on the wing of the church, and said to Him: “If You are the Son of God, throw yourself down,” and He led Him up to a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to Him: “All this I will give You, if you fall and worship Me” (Matthew 4:5-6, 8-9). The Lord and Creator of all suffered such insolence and fury from an evil spirit, which with one wave he could forbid. For our sake, man endured, that he might help us who were tempted (Heb. 2:18). Wandering the earth and preaching His Divine Word, he blasphemed terribly in the tongues of the Pharisees. His divine miracles were attributed to Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Matthew 9:34, 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15). They revered His holy and heavenly teachings as blasphemy against God (Matthew 26:65; Mark 2:7, 14:64; Luke 5:21). They spewed blasphemies at Him and, like stinging arrows, hurled with their tongues: “He has a demon; He is a Samaritan; He has lost His temper; a man who loves to eat and drink wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners,” and so on (John 8:48, 52; Mark 3:21–22; Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34). He suffered blasphemies and slander. One Blessed One forever, to protect us from the slander of the devil. He lived in poverty, so that he had “no place to lay his head”, He Who Has heaven as a throne and earth as a footstool (Matthew 8:20). For our sakes, although he was rich, he became poor, so that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). This also includes the fact that He clearly foresaw the most severe and incomprehensible sufferings that would happen in his time and incomprehensible to the human mind. Therefore, he predicted about them to the apostles: “From that time Jesus began to reveal to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again” (Matthew 16:21). This also includes the constant labors carried out in moving from place to place, from city to city, from village to village, in order to bring and preach to people the Holy Gospel, which He brought to earth from the bosom of His Heavenly Father, and so on. Thus the Son of God labored and sweated for the sake of the poor human soul, which Satan had stolen into his power. Finally, he was sold and betrayed by His disciple, abandoned by the other disciples; judged and condemned, struck, spat upon, mocked, wounded, crowned with thorns; like a villain, naked and, being Blessed, like a cursed one, hanged on a tree as a disgrace to all (Gal. 3:13). The hanged man was ridiculed and scolded by those passing by before His eyes, and they cast lots for His clothes, and gave him vinegar and gall to drink in his thirst. Thus, the tortured and ridiculed Son of God ended His life on the tree of the cross. But even after his saving death he was pierced in the side (John 19:34), we call him a deceiver (Matthew 27:63). They tried to hide His resurrection and took bribes on the hands of the guards, so that they would not say what they saw (Matthew 28:12-15). So Christ endured His entire life, at death and after death, for the sake of us sinners. § 344. If someone fell into some great misfortune, for example, or was captured by the enemy, or fell into a mortal disease, or fell into mortal guilt, for which he should have died according to the law, and there was such a good person who delivered him from that misfortune through his efforts, then the one who was delivered would certainly keep in unforgettable memory the great work of his deliverance and would diligently honor his deliverer, otherwise he would be extremely ungrateful and was insensitive. We, Orthodox Christians, have seen what trouble we have fallen into for our sins, and how, by whom we were delivered from it: “We were not redeemed with corruptible things, silver or gold, from the vain life handed down to you from our fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus,” and so on (Gal. 3:13–14 et seq.). Consider how we should honor this great work of deliverance and the Savior. § 345. The property of faith is to appropriate the benefits and merits of Christ, shown to the whole world, to oneself. Therefore, every faithful person, you and I, with faithful Paul, must confess from the heart: “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). I believe that both for the sake of everyone, and for the sake of me, the indecent one, he was born of the Virgin, lived in the flesh on earth, endured blasphemy, dishonor, suffering, crucifixion and death on the cross, and just as for everyone, so also for me, unworthy, I earned from God mercy, remission of sins, grace, blessing, adoption, the inheritance of eternal life and bliss, which by my own strength I could not and cannot deserve and receive. He humbled himself in order to exalt me, the humble one; He became poor in order to make me, a beggar, rich; He endured blasphemy and slander in order to protect me from the devil’s slander; was bound in order to free me from eternal bonds; I was tried and convicted in order to free me from condemnation; He accepted ulcers and wounds in order to heal me, who was wounded; He endured reproach and dishonor in order to honor me, who had been desecrated by Satan; He died in order to revive the dead, and as for everyone, so for me, who believes in His name, he became the Deliverer, Savior, Intercessor and Author of eternal bliss. And if every faithful person must apply and assimilate this great work of the Son of God to himself, then he must honor it as if it was done for his sake alone. That is why Saint Chrysostom says: “Each of us righteously should thank Christ as if He came for him alone. For He would not have refused to show such a care, that He loves every man with the same measure of love as the whole world” (Homilies on Galatians 2:20). For the sake of you and me, Christ came into the world, therefore you and I must meet and honor Him, as great as our own Benefactor, with a grateful, humble, loving, obedient and patient heart. From this you see, Christian, that: 1) Whoever has such faith, as every Christian should have, will not want to sin against his conscience. 2) He has love for Christ and tries to fulfill His commandments. 3) Christians’ vicious and fruitless lives serve as evidence of their unbelief, although they have faith on their lips. If conscience convinces us to love a benefactor who has done us a temporary good, then all the more faith, when we have it, will convince us to love Christ, Who acquired eternal and incomprehensible bliss for us by our minds through no other means than His free suffering and death. And where there is love for Christ, there is inseparable obedience to Christ. Where there is obedience, there is careful fulfillment of His commandments, and where there is fulfillment of His commandments, there is the creation of good deeds, for His commandments teach good deeds. And so you see that true faith is the mother of good deeds, and unbelief is the root of evil. § 346. Christ’s saving coming and suffering are venerated: 1) By faith, when we honor Him as our only Deliverer, Savior and Defender, we are sent by His Heavenly Father for our deliverance, and we do not recognize any other mediator to obtain eternal life besides Him, as the Heavenly Father testifies to us about Him: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5). And His apostle says: “Keep in mind the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ” (Heb. 3:1). 2) With everlasting memory, when we remember with love and gratitude this great work of His, begun and completed for our sake. Everyone, think about it: for whose sake was Christ born, lived on earth, suffered and died? For the sake of me and you, sinner, for the sake of my and your lost soul, for the sake of my and your salvation, the Son of God worked and struggled so much! We must keep all this in everlasting and grateful memory. Every benefit shown to us requires that we always remember it - all the more great is this work of redemption. Therefore, the Savior Himself says: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). Therefore, the Holy Church presents the most important Sacraments of His saving vision to us for remembrance and celebration. Therefore, on boards and on other materials we depict His glorious deeds, such as: the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, the Epiphany, the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the Passion, the Burial, the Resurrection, and so on, so that, looking at the image, they would remember Him Himself, Who for our sake created this written on the icon, and, remembering, fervently thanked the Creator. For such an image for us is instead of everlasting memory and obvious history, and for those who cannot read, instead of everlasting reading, and so what we read in sacred history, or hear from it, we clearly see what is depicted on the icon. 3) With grateful praise, singing and glorification, when we remember His wonderful and saving deeds and glorify His goodness. Therefore, God’s holy word commands us to sing about this great work: “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Eph. 5:18-19). And again: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col 3:16). And he commands to sing a new song: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done wonderful things” (Ps. 97:1). A new song is fitting for a new miracle. A new miracle has happened in us, the likes of which were not seen in ancient times. A new miracle is that God appeared in the flesh, and the Lord of glory suffered for His profane servant. For our sake, sinners, a new miracle has happened: it is fitting for us to sing a new song to the Lord, and to sing in the renewal of heart and spirit, that is, in putting off the old man and putting on the new. Rejoicing in our well-being, the holy angels sang to God, who had mercy on us: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14)! The holy prophets foresaw this great miracle and sang with surprise. One sang: “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). Another, horrified at this, cried out: “Lord! I heard Your rumor and was afraid. God! I learned of Your works and was horrified” (Hab 3:1–2ff.). “Abraham saw and rejoiced” (John 8:56). They foresaw what we are already seeing. They saw the future, we see what has happened. They waited, we waited. They are what is covered under darkness and shadow, we see what is revealed. Therefore, it is righteous and fitting for us to sing a new song: “Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior; let us stand before Him with praise and shout to Him in psalms” (Ps. 94:1-2). Our mother, the Holy Church, calls us to this rejoicing: “Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, telling the real mystery,” and so on (At Vespers on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ). “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, that He has visited His people and brought deliverance to them” (Luke 1:68). “Become a helper and protector for my salvation: This is my God, and I will glorify Him; God of my father, and I will exalt Him” (Ex. 15:2). 4) By oral confession, when we fearlessly confess our faith, which we have in our hearts, with our lips, where it is due. We are not silent where the honor and glory of His name demands it. We are not ashamed to call him born of a Virgin and crucified on the Cross by our God, although this is “a temptation for the Jews, and foolishness for the Greeks,” but for us Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom (1 Cor. 1:23–24, 30). So, first of all, the Holy Church gives us a model of faith: “Even though you were, O Christ, from lawless men, yet you are my God, and I will not be ashamed; I was beaten by the splash, and I am not swept away,” and so on. Thus, Saint Paul is not only not ashamed to be a prisoner of Christ, but also does not want to boast in anything other than the cross of Christ: “I do not want to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). And to Timothy he writes: “Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 1:8). Thus, the confessors and martyrs of the saints not only were not ashamed to confess the crucified God before the tormentors and enemies of the truth, but they also did not renounce wounds and death for the glory of His name. Likewise, we should not suppress the truth where necessary, but confess with a fearless heart that we should at least lose not only our honor and property, but also our lives from the enemies of the truth, for this is what our faith requires of us. It is glorious for us to confess Him and boast about Him, whose name is holy and terrible, but sweet to us. Although he was conceived in a virgin’s womb, he is from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18), and is co-originating with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Born in the year (predetermined) from the Virgin Mother (Luke 2:7), but there is “a God above all, blessed forever” (Rom. 9:5). He was wrapped in swaddling clothes like a baby (Luke 2:7), but He who is clothed with light, like a robe (Ps. 103:2). Brought to the church as a baby by the hands of the mother (Luke 2:22), but the old man Simeon was released from time to eternal life (Luke 2:29). He was persecuted by Herod, but he brought the wise men to worship Him (Matthew 2). He was baptized in the Jordan, but the Father testified from heaven about the One who was being baptized: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descending on the One being Baptized, confirmed the truth (Matthew 3:13–17). the devil, but put the tempter to shame (Matthew 4:3–11; Luke 4:2–13). He lived on earth among people, but was not excommunicated from the bosom of the Fathers (John 1:18). He remained in the form of a slave (Phil. 2:7), but, like the Lord, he commanded the winds and the sea - and they obeyed Him, he commanded demons - and went out, he commanded the dead - and arose, he commanded the blind - and they received their sight, the deaf - and they received hearing, the dumb - and they spoke, lepers - and they were cleansed (Matthew 15:30-31, 17:17, 9 and etc.). He was hungry and thirsty, but he fed many thousands with five loaves of bread (Matthew 17:17–21). The blasphemers were envious and malicious, but I saw the thoughts of their hearts (Matthew 12:25). He ate with sinners, but he cleansed their sins when they repented (Luke 15:2-7). He was sold and betrayed as an ungrateful disciple for pieces of silver, but he redeemed us, sold for sin. He grieved and yearned, but he took away eternal sorrow and longing from us. He was bound by the lawless, but he bound our enemy the devil and loosed our bonds. He faced the judgment seat of the unrighteous, but he delivered us from eternal judgment. He was stripped and naked, but He clothed us with the robe of His righteousness. He was ridiculed, dishonored, mocked, spat upon, but he freed us from eternal shame, dishonor and desecration. He was crowned with thorns, but he gave us a crown of eternal glory. He was crucified on a tree and died, but he darkened the sun, he shook the earth, he opened the tombs, he gave life to the dead, he terrified the centurion and those with him (Matthew 27:45, 51-54), he brought the thief into paradise (Luke 23:43) and by his death he put to death our death. He was buried in the tomb as if he were dead, but with His power he rose up like an immortal, and gave us, the dying, hope of uprising. He lived on earth, but ascended to heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead, and to reward everyone according to their deeds—to bring the righteous into eternal life and the kingdom of heaven, and to consign the sinners to eternal torment (Matthew 25:31–46). Thus, believing in the Crucified One, we do not deny confessing Him as our Lord and God, Who - “for our sake as Man and for our salvation” - became Man, so that by Himself he could arrange for us the path of salvation. In this is our wisdom, praise, glory, life, consolation, joy, hope and eternal bliss. 5) Since our faith and the word of God assures us that Christ suffered for our sins, as it is written: “He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities” (Is. 53:5), then there is no greater honor for the Son of God, who suffered for our sins, than when for the sake of His love we hate sins and move away from them. And the more we hate them and run away from them, the more we love and honor Christ, who came into the world and suffered, so that without this there cannot be true veneration, but it will be feigned and hypocritical. For where sins are not abandoned, but are done, there is no true repentance, for repenting and not forsaking sins are opposite things in themselves. Where there is no true repentance, there is no faith in Christ. Where there is no faith, there cannot be Christ. Where there is no Christ, there Christ is not revered, but rejected and despised. Hear this, sin-loving soul! You do not honor Christ, who honored you so highly, when you love sin, but you love it because you do not abandon it, for whoever loves something holds on to it. You rejoice in the fact for which Christ drank the sorrowful cup of torment. This is how you pay respect and gratitude to Christ, who came to seek and save you! And until then you will show Him such contempt and ingratitude, although you honor Him with your lips, until you leave sin and truly repent. 6) Finally, let us honor Christ, who suffered for us, when, hating sin, we follow His holy word and the example of His immaculate life, as He says: “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me” (John 12:26). For to honor Christ and to serve Christ is one thing. He taught us by word and example how to live a virtuous life, as we read in His Holy Gospel. If we want to honor Him from the heart, we must listen to Him in this. We cannot honor Him without obedience, as you yourself can admit. What kind of honor is there for the master when the slave does not listen to him, and for the father when the son does not obey him? This is not reverence, but obvious contempt and dishonor. So we show Christ hypocritical, and not true, reverence, in the very thing we despise, when we say to Him with our lips: “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what He commands, as He Himself says: “Why do you call Me: Lord! God! – and do not do what I say” (Luke 6:46)? For true reverence is demonstrated not only by word, but also by deed. Christians, we must show our faith in Him by our works, as His apostle demands of us: “Show me your faith by your works” (James 2:18). Our faith requires from us love, mercy, mercy, humility, meekness, patience and other Christian virtues, which He taught us in word and deed. Therefore, let us ourselves honor Christ and our Lord who honored us. Is it great for us to give to one who asks for His sake, Who gave us whatever we have (for everything we have is His, except sins), and He gave Himself? Is it great to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, bring the strange into the house, visit the sick and imprisoned in prison, for the sake of Him who for our sake hungered, thirsted, was naked, wandered, bore our illnesses, was sick and was bound? Is it great for us to forgive our neighbor’s sins for the sake of Him, Who suffered for our sins? Is it hard for us to endure for His sake when He endured terrible torment for our sake? He, our Lord and God (Oh, Thy goodness, Jesus our God!), was not ashamed and did not deny for our sake, His indecent servants, to be ridiculed, mocked, spat upon, wounded, struck, crucified and die. Should we, His unworthy servants, be ashamed of Him and His words “in this adulterous and sinful generation” (Mark 8:38), and not tolerate that the opposite should happen to us, and not follow what He taught by His word and example? Truly the old Adam reigns over us, and not Christ. Truly we are not Christ’s when we do not follow His word and life. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Rom. 8:9). For whoever has the Spirit of Christ, he thinks what Christ is, and learns what is pleasing to Christ, seeks and wants what Christ wants, tries to do what Christ demands. If we want to be Christ’s and honor Christ as our King, we must philosophize with Him, want and do what He wants and commands. True reverence is not only in the outside, but also in the inside, not only in words, confession and ceremony, but also in the heart, zeal, love, gratitude and obedience. Our Lord and God exist - let us honor Him with fear and obedience. Our most sincere lover - let us honor Him with our love. Our benefactor - let us honor Him with gratitude. Our Redeemer, for at the price of His Blood He redeemed us for Himself - let us honor Him with diligent work. Our Teacher - let us honor Him by willingly fulfilling His teaching. Our Shepherd - let us honor Him by listening to His holy voice (John 10:27). Our most faithful leader to heaven - let us honor Him by faithfully and lovingly following Him. Thus, Christians, let us honor Christ our King. He loved us, unworthy, and we will love Him, worthy of love, Who is the consolation and joy of Angels and holy souls. He honored us, unworthy, and we will also honor Him, worthy of all reverence, Whom the Angels worship with fear and love and every knee bows. He looked for us, the lost, and we too will look for Him with faith and love. He did not spare Himself for our sake, and we will not spare ourselves for His sake. He endured everything for our sake; we too will endure everything for His sake, so that we may be glorified with Him in His kingdom. God! Guide us on this path, for You are “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). § 347. Do all Christians honor the coming and suffering of Christ? Answer. Christians who have loved the Gospel of Christ and practice repentance and fruits worthy of repentance are honored, but defective Christians, for example, fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, predators, thieves, bribe-takers, flatterers, the wicked, haters, evil-doers, slanderers, slanderers and others of the like, are not honored. Why? Due to the fact that: 1) There can be no true reverence without faith. Living a lawless life is contrary to faith and is a sign of unbelief. 2) “No one can serve two masters,” according to the word of Christ (Matthew 6:24). They serve their passions and honor them, for whatever their passions want, they fulfill. While they honor their own passions, they do not honor Christ’s passions and, enslaving themselves to their own whims, they cannot serve Christ, for there is one thing to honor Christ and serve Christ. If anyone honors Christ, he will certainly serve Him. 3) Lawless life is disgusting and hostile to the Cross and the suffering of Christ, for Christ suffered and died for our sins. Lawless Christians neglect this high His grace and love for mankind and by their unrepentant life they show that Christ died in vain. Just as for those who stop sinning and repent, the suffering and death of Christ is not in vain, but receives its fruit, that is, remission of sins, justification, and intercedes for eternal life, so those who do not repent, but remain in sins, do not provide any benefit, and therefore, because of their unrepentant life, it is futile for them. And the Blood of Christ, for the sake of all, among whom they are included, was shed, for their sake it was as if shed in vain, for its fruit, which is conversion, repentance, new life and remission of sins and salvation, is lost in them. Although Christ died for everyone, according to the teaching of the Apostle (2 Cor. 5:15), the death of Christ only benefits those who repent of their sins and believe in Him, but does not receive its saving fruit for the unrepentant. And this does not happen from Christ, “Who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), and died for everyone, but from those who do not want to repent and take advantage of the death of Christ. Just as medicine, although considerable and very useful, does not benefit everyone, but only those who accept it in a decent manner, so spiritual and life-giving medicine, the death of Christ, only heals and revives those souls who accept it with a grateful heart, renounce their sins, repent and believe in Christ, who heals the ailments of His faithful, but does not give any benefit to the unrepentant. And so the Blood of Christ, the Son of God, shed for the sake of all, is shown to be vain in itself when, lacking true repentance, they deprive themselves of that for which it was shed. “Grace, although there is grace, saves those who want, and not those who do not want,” teaches Saint Chrysostom (Discourse 18 on the Epistle to the Romans). Therefore, Saint Paul, the warmest lover and teacher of Christ, weeps for such and calls them enemies of the Cross of Christ: “Many, about whom I have often told you, and now I even tell you with tears, act as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in shame; they mind earthly things” (Phil. 3:18-19). The enemies of the cross of Christ - because they resist the Cross of Christ. How? The Cross of Christ teaches us to walk in a narrow way - they walk in a wide way. The cross teaches them to humble themselves - they are proud. The cross teaches you to cut off your whims - they commit them. The cross teaches us to endure - they become angry and spiteful. The cross teaches the flesh to crucify with passions and lusts - they think about carnal things. The cross teaches sin to die, and God to live - they live for themselves and for sin. The cross teaches them to seek heavenly things; they think about earthly things. “Christ died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again for them” (2 Cor. 5:15). Someone will say: “Many of them cover the image of the cross of Christ and the image of Christ with silver and gold.” Answer. They cover with this substance the image of the tree of the cross, on which Christ was crucified, and the image of Christ, but they do not honor Christ Himself with disobedience, disobedience and resistance, for they resist His Word. They do not honor the suffering of Christ, which is revered not by substance, gold, silver and other things, but by heartfelt faith, love, gratitude and patience. Another will object: “Many of them go to church and sing of Christ and His sufferings.” They sing with their lips, but with their hearts they turn away from Him and turn to the world, as Christ says about such people: “This people draws near to Me with their lips, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8). External confession and veneration without internal is hypocrisy, as was said above and will be reflected below. Someone will ask: “Why do these people act so fearlessly and lawlessly?” Because they do not heed the word of God, which teaches us to honor God and Christ the Son of God not only in appearance, but with heartfelt faith, fear and love, and therefore they do what pleases their whims. What should they do so that they can truly honor Christ, crucified for all? They must leave their former lawless and godless life, and turn to Christ, and earnestly pray to Him to accept them into the fellowship of His faithful. Christ says: “Him who comes to Me I will in no way cast out” (John 6:37). Only the faithful servants of Christ honor Christ, for without true and living faith no one can honor Him. Chapter 4: Of the Due Service of Christ “Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling” (Ps. 2:11). § 348. Both service and freedom are twofold: bodily and spiritual. Corporal service - when someone has a master over him, whom he obeys, serves and carries out his orders, which is why he is called a slave. Spiritual service is when a person serves sin, and sin serves the devil. For sin is the devil’s work, and therefore, whoever does the devil’s work serves the devil: “Whoever commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sinned first” (1 John 3:8), “for whoever is overcome by someone is his slave” (2 Peter 2:19). Christ speaks about this slavery: “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). In such slavery are the lovers of money, predators, thieves, fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, flatterers, liars, the crafty, bribe-takers, evil-doers and others of the like. Masters who are free in body, who are captivated by some passions and allow sin to reign over them, are not excluded from this slavery. The apostle warns Christians against such slavery: “Let not sin reign in your mortal body, so that you should obey it in its lusts” (Rom. 6:12). From this it is clear that there is bodily and spiritual freedom. Bodily freedom - when a person does not serve another person, he is not subject to his authority. Such are kings and princes, not subject to earthly authority. Also, bodily freedom is when a person’s body is free, not bound, not shackled, not imprisoned, etc. Spiritual freedom is when a person is freed from sin and the devil’s power by the grace of God, does not allow sin and the devil to reign over him, resists his passions and lusts, subdues the flesh to the spirit, and serves God alone as a free spirit. Such a person can be physically a slave of a person, bound, shackled, in prison, in chains, in captivity, but in spirit he is everywhere and always free. For no one can enslave and bind the spirit. So the holy martyrs were shackled in body, bound and imprisoned, but were free in spirit. So today, pious slaves work for their carnal masters with their bodies, but are free in spirit. Likewise, others who live piously, although they are imprisoned and taken captive, remain free in spirit. For as long as a person has faith and strives against the flesh, the world, the devil and sin, he has spiritual freedom, although he is enslaved by the body. If you want to have this glorious freedom, Christian, always strive against sin and the devil, your enemy, and you will be free. § 349. By transgressing the commandment of God in paradise, our first parents, and with them we, their children, all became slaves of sin and captives of the devil, lost spiritual freedom and royal spiritual nobility, fell into heavy sinful slavery and fell under the power of the devil, and was proud of us, like a terrible giant and tormentor of captives. From this grave slavery and devilish captivity and power, Christ, the Son of God, redeemed us, “not with corruptible things, silver or gold, but with His precious Blood” (1 Peter 1:18-19); He gave the price for us captives with His precious Blood. Why is it called and is the Redeemer, Liberator and Deliverer of the human race. And so He brought us to spiritual freedom, so that we would no longer be slaves sin and the devil, but they fought against these enemies, and served Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit, like purchased slaves, not forced, but freely, for He does not force anyone to His work and service, as earthly masters do, but only calls. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–29). And so that we can willingly perform this blessed service, He promised to give us, and by faith gives His Holy Spirit to those who ask, grace (Luke 11:13), which precedes us who are unwilling, so that we might diligently desire; He helps those who want to do what we want; accompanies those who do, so that they always remain in that blessed work and remain until the end, as Saint David sings and prays about this: “Your mercy will follow me all the days of my life” (Ps. 22:6). § 350. Our duty requires of us that we serve Jesus Christ our Lord diligently. Because: 1) We are not our own, as the apostle teaches: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Therefore, we are not our own, but His, for He bought us not with silver or gold, but with His honest Blood. Our entire composition, our soul and body, is His, therefore we must turn our soul and body to His service, as the apostle exhorts us: “Glorify God in your body and in your soul, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). External service must come from the internal, and physical service must be in harmony with the soul, so that it is also inside, in the heart, which is externally manifested in word and deed, and the faith that is confessed on the lips is in the heart and, on occasion, shows itself outwardly, just as a good tree shows itself with good fruits (Matthew 7:17). 2) When we entered His Church through holy baptism, denying Satan and all His works, we promised to serve Him faithfully with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must keep our vows and serve Him faithfully, so as not to appear deceitful before Him. 3) We are His servants because we were created by Him. He is our Creator and Lord, we are the work of His hands. “Your hands made me and created me,” David sings to Him (Ps. 119:73), which each of us should sing to Him. “He created us, and not we: we are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Ps. 99:3). The evil Satan took possession of us, His creation, but He, as our Creator, again tore us out of his hands, and, as His own, again appropriated us to Himself, therefore He, our righteous Lord, must righteously serve all the days of our life. 4) All creation serves Him as their Lord, as the prophet sings to Him: “All things serve You,” O Lord (Ps. 119:91), for He fulfills His word (Ps. 149:8). And we, His rational creatures, must fulfill our purpose and serve Him as our Lord. 5) All creation, according to His command, serves us. The sun, moon and stars shine for us, fire warms us, clouds water us, water waters us, the earth brings us fruits, cattle serve us and serve us food, and so on. All His creation serves us, so that we diligently serve our Creator and thank Him for the service that is acceptable from His creation. He does not demand anything for His own sake, as He is completely blessed, but we demand. Therefore, before creating man, he first created heaven and earth and all their adornment, so that the created things for man would be like slaves and servants, ready to serve, and so he created man, a rational creature, so that he could use them for his needs and service and, having received a service from them, directly served his Creator, like the closest and most rational slave. Do you see, Christian, how the unreasonable creature serves us, so that we, the rational ones, can serve God. 6) This is wonderful, that the visible light, by the command of God, serves us, but what is more wonderful is that the holy angels also serve our salvation. “The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him” (Ps. 33:8). “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to minister for those who are to inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14)? The Old Testament is filled with examples of the ministry of Angels, but the New Testament also contains many such services. An angel preaches to the Blessed Virgin about the Son of God coming into the world, and begotten by Her flesh (Luke 1:26–38). An angel appears to Joseph, Her betrothed (Matthew 1:20, 2:13, 19). The angel of Zechariah appears and preaches the news of the conception of the Forerunner (Luke 1:11). An angel preaches to the shepherds about the birth of Christ, the Savior of the world (Luke 2:9). Angels sit on the tomb of the risen Christ and preach the resurrection to women (Luke 24:4). During the Ascension of the Lord, angels appear to the apostles and announce to them about the second coming of Christ (Acts 1:10). An angel brings Peter out of prison (Acts 12:7). The angel says to Philip: “Get up and go south along the road leading out of Jerusalem,” and so on (Acts 8:26). An angel appears to Cornelius the centurion (Acts 10, etc.). Church history tells the same story. “A Guardian Angel is given to every faithful one and always sees the face of the Heavenly Father,” says Basil the Great (In his word on virginity and on Ps. 68, vol. 1). These holy and blessed spirits serve our salvation, so that we diligently serve their Lord and ours and thus be saved. Therefore, be amazed, Christian, at the goodness and love of God, that He commanded not only the visible creation to serve our needs, but also the invisible, His holy servants, to protect us and take up arms around us. From this, know Christian honor and high nobility, that the servants of God Almighty himself are sent to serve them. It would truly be a great thing if the king of the earth, releasing his faithful subject from himself, ordered his servants to accompany him to his home, so that no evil would happen to him on the way, but what an incomparably greater thing is that the King of Heaven, after baptism, releasing His faithful servants on the path of this world, gives them His servants, the holy angels, for the sake of their protection, so that under their protection they would come to his heavenly fatherland, although He Himself does not separate from them, according to Scripture: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). It is truly impossible to marvel at the goodness and love of God towards man. A damned man, a sinner, a lawbreaker and an apostate of God - by the grace of the Son of God, by faith in Him, is awarded such high mercy from God. Oh, our all-merciful God and Creator! Your love meets us everywhere, wherever we turn. A person is truly blind when he does not see it, ungrateful when he does not acknowledge it from the heart, wretched when, having abandoned God, his Lord, his Benefactor and Provider, he serves the evil world and sin. For which he himself will be convicted and condemned both by the word of God and by his conscience, for he sins against the word of God and his own conscience. 7) And serve Christ favorably. If the sons of this age prefer to serve a high master than a simple one, a good one rather than an evil one, a wise one rather than a foolish one, a meek, merciful one rather than an angry and cruel one, then who is higher than the King of Heaven? Who is better than Jesus? Who is wiser than the Son of God? Who is more meek and merciful than Christ? He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, He is eternal goodness, He is God's Hypostatic wisdom, He is meek and lowly in heart. What else remains for us, sinners, but to surrender ourselves and surrender ourselves into His sweet service? 8) People are looking for easy work rather than hard work. For Jesus, work is easy. He does not order His servants to carry stones, He does not order them to tear up mountains, or anything like that. No, we don’t hear anything like that from Him. But what? “Love one another” (John 13:34, 15:12, 17). What's easier than love? It is hard to hate, because hatred torments, but to love is sweet, because love makes you happy. He himself testifies about himself: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Let us, beloved Christian, take upon ourselves the good yoke of Christ, and let us bear His light burden, and let us follow Him. 9) People want to rest in peace after labor and work. Christ promises us eternal rest, an eternal Sabbath, which we will celebrate unceasingly and endlessly, not on earth, but in heaven (Is. 66:23). 10) People want rewards for their work and efforts. Christ promises us eternal reward in His kingdom. “Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, my servants shall eat; My servants will drink; My servants will rejoice, My servants will sing for the joy of their hearts” (Isaiah 65:13–14). 11) Those who work for Jesus have their reward here too. For true virtue itself is a reward for those who have it. For where true virtue is, there is love; where there is love, there is a good and calm conscience; where there is a calm conscience, there is peace and quiet; where there is peace and tranquility, there is consolation, joy, fun and sweetness. Thus, Christian, serving Jesus is our duty, for He is our God, Creator, Lord, Redeemer and Provider. Our ministry is glorious, for He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Sweet, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Desirable, because it has a great and ineffable reward. Let us work with a sincere heart, so that we too may receive compensation from Him along with the workers in His vineyard (Matthew 20, etc.). §351. The Christian service that Christians offer to their Lord and King Jesus Christ consists of: 1) In true, living and heartfelt faith in Christ. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent,” says Christ (John 6:29). The Father sent His Son into the world, “so that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). Therefore, the work of God is done by the one who, as sent from the Heavenly Father, accepts Him with his heart and sincerely believes in Him. And what is received and believed with the heart is also confessed with the mouth, where necessary and the honor of His name demands, as the apostle says: “With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation” (Rom. 10:10). 2) Consists of a feat against the devil and sin. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, when Moses brought Israel out of Egypt and delivered him from slavery, chased after him, although he would enslave him again (Ex. 14:6-10). So the devil is chasing after us, Christians, whom Christ the Son of God delivered from slavery, and wants to enslave him again. So he opposes Christ. Christ wants to save us - he wants to destroy us, and so the evil spirit tries to invalidate His merits and thereby diminish His glory, which comes from those who are saved for the sake of His salvation. The more people are saved by the grace of Christ, the greater glory comes to Christ from this. Seeing this and being indignant, he seeks to create an obstacle to our salvation and diminish the glory of Christ. We, with the help of God, must fight against this enemy of ours and the adversary of Christ by faith, knowing that we are Christ’s, redeemed from him at the price of His Blood (1 Cor. 6:19–20, 7:23). He seduces us with the vanity of this world and advises us to cunningly seek the honor, glory, wealth and sweetness of this age, in order to thereby create an obstacle for us in this feat of ours, as he advised our ancestors in paradise to eat from the commanded tree, thereby confusing and destroying them. We must not listen to his evil advice and not love the world, according to the apostolic exhortation: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father. For whatever is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is of this world” (1 John 2:15-16). Thus, the holy martyrs, when their tormentors, the devil’s servants, persuaded and persuaded them to idolatry, gave them the following answer: “We are Christians, we serve Christ, we are Christ’s servants, but we will not worship idols.” Thus, we, Christians, must, when Satan inclines and convinces us with evil thoughts, as his servants, to sin and the creation of his evil will, answer him: “We are Christ’s servants, we must serve Christ, we do not listen to you and we do not accept your evil advice.” How many times, dear Christian, do ungodly thoughts arise in your heart, the lust for carnal impurity, the lust for exaltation in honor and glory, the lust for nasty gain, theft, theft, extortion, revenge and bitterness, and so on, so many times must you fight and struggle against the enemy of your soul. Really understand that this is the evil advice of our enemy Satan, who opposes Christ and hinders our salvation. For Christ turns us away from sin, but he leads us into sin, and so he wants to catch us again in his net, and subjugate us from the kingdom of Christ to his own power. For all those who are slaves to sin are under the power of the devil and therefore “have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5). When an evil thought arises in you and wants to plunge you into sin, then answer in the likeness of the martyrs: “Christ redeemed me for Himself, I am Christ’s, I must serve Christ with faith and righteousness.” In a word, if you want to be in the kingdom of Christ, to serve Him and truly call Him His King, Lord and God, you must not be a slave of sin, for “everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). 3) He serves Christ who, having rejected the heavy satanic yoke, burdened with sins, bears the good yoke of Christ, according to His word: “Take My yoke upon you” (Matthew 11:29). The good yoke of Christ means His holy and easy commandments, for “His commandments are not heavy” (1 John 5:3). What is easier than loving, as stated above? He commands us to love one another: “I command you this, that you love one another” (John 15:17). And from love all good deeds will flow, like streams from a spring, for love is the root of good deeds (1 Cor. 13:1-8, 13). If anyone has true Christian love, he bears the yoke of Christ and fulfills His commandments, and so it works for Him. 4) The faithful servants of Christ must seek the glory of their Lord, turn away from evil and do good, so that from there the name of their Lord will be glorified, so that their deeds may be pleasing to their Lord, otherwise they cannot be pleasing. How can Christ please a work that is not done for the sake of Christ? Every deed, whatever it is, good or evil, is judged according to its purpose. Although a deed apparently seems good, when it is not done for a good purpose, it cannot be good, but evil. For example, you give alms in order to receive praise from a person: you do a good deed outwardly, but inside it is evil, because you do it for the sake of your vain glory, and not for the sake of Christ. Therefore, one must not only do good deeds, but also do them in truth, that is, for a good purpose, which is the glory of God. 5) Faithful servants of Christ must always serve their Lord, in prosperity and adversity. A true and faithful slave must be inseparable from his master. Likewise, Christ’s servant must always be with Christ his Lord and serve Him relentlessly. Otherwise, this is a hypocritical and untrue service, when in our prosperity we love Christ and serve Him, but in misfortune we are indignant, we grumble, and so our hearts lag behind Him. We must be constant servants of Christ and follow Him everywhere, as He Himself wants from us: “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me” (John 12:26). 6) Faithful servants of Christ must be humble, meek and patient. It is a shame for slaves not to be humble, patient and meek when their master is humble, patient and meek, it is a shame for Christians to be proud when their Lord Jesus Christ is humble in heart, and to be angry and take revenge when their Lord is meek and long-suffering. Therefore, He commanded them to learn these virtues from Himself: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29), for slaves must follow the morals of their masters. 7) The servants of Christ must be faithful to the end, as the Lord Himself tells them: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). Every work receives its perfection from the end, and not from the beginning. The end accomplishes everything. A good beginning is commendable, but without an end to a good thing it loses its praise. It is glorious to defeat the enemy at first, but the final victory makes all the difference. So it is in the Christian cause: it is commendable to struggle against sin and the devil and defeat it, but without final victory this is nothing. Therefore, one must work in this blessed work to the end. § 352. Someone will say: “Many Christians serve people, such as subjects to monarchs, slaves to their masters.” Answer: 1) They serve people with their bodies, but in their spirit they serve the one Christ, their King, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and therefore they are free, for no one can enslave the spirit. Just as those bound in chains, sitting in prison, captive, in body in captivity, but the pious are free in spirit as long as they are in true piety. 2) True and faithful servants of Christ must serve man, but for the sake of Christ, Who teaches: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). And the apostle says: “Be subject to every human authority for the Lord’s sake” (1 Peter 2:13). If anyone works for his master for the sake of the commandment of Christ, he serves not man, but Christ the Lord. For whoever fulfills whose will and command serves him. And so, whoever, listening to the commands of God, works for his master, serves God, and not man, since he listens to God’s commands, and not human ones. Just as a slave serves his master not because he is a respectable man, but because the king ordered him to work and made him a slave, and so, listening to the king’s commands, the slave serves his king, and not just the master, but for the sake of the king, so Christians should serve the person to whom they are subordinate, not just, but for the sake of the Lord who commands: “Be obedient,” and so on. This is what the Christian faith demands, which frees man from everything and freely enslaves him to the one God. Freely, I say, because God does not force anyone to serve Him, as was said above. And just as a slave must listen to his master until then, as long as he orders him to do something that is not contrary to the monarch’s laws, and when something contrary to them is ordered, then a slave loyal to the monarch should not listen to him, so the faithful slaves of Christ must listen only to their masters, what they command is not contrary to their King Jesus Christ. Otherwise, Christ’s command should be preferred, for “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). This is how the holy martyrs, the faithful and chosen servants of Christ acted. The wicked kings ordered them to give tribute - they did. They ordered us to go to battle - they went. They commanded to work - they worked. They commanded the meal to come - it did. They ordered the ore to be dug - they dug. They ordered stones and earth to be carried - they were carried. They commanded me to go to captivity, to prison, to go into chains - they did not resist. They commanded the clothes to be taken off - they were taken off. They commanded in other things, not contrary to the law of God - they obeyed. And when their command came to the point of contempt of God and they were commanded to worship idols, they began to boldly oppose the wicked command, they did not want to obey their masters, heeding the commandment of the only true God: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery; Let you have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2–3). And to those the saints showed that until then the human ruler must obey and serve us, as long as his command is in accordance with God’s command, or is not contrary to him. When your master commands you something that is in accordance with God's law, God commands you. So, when you obey your master in this, you obey God and work. Moreover, think about whom you fear when you work hard for your master, God or your master, man? When you fear God, Who commanded you to obey the authorities, and thus serve the master God for the sake of it, then you serve God, whom you worship with fear, and not man, and when you fear the master man, lest he punish you for negligence, then you are truly only serving man, and not God. For you serve man not for the sake of God, but for the sake of human fear. Every person, for whom he does something, pleases him, and whomever he pleases, he serves, for serving and pleasing are one thing. And so, when you serve the master in order to please him, and not God, you serve man, and not God. Likewise, anyone who avoids sin and apparently only does a good deed not to please God, but to please people, such a person pleases not God, but people, and serves not God, but people, a servant of people, and not the Lord. Every deed based on the heart’s disposition and purpose is judged by God. So all those Christians are human slaves, not the Lord’s, who obey the decrees of the monarchs, fearing civil execution, and not God. Thus, judges who call themselves Christians are human servants, not God’s, if they do not touch upon bribes and observe the truth not for the sake of the fear of God, but for the sake of the fear of man. For all such, if they were not afraid of civil punishment, would do it of their own free will, but the fear of civil judgment keeps them from doing so. And therefore, having left God, they serve man, or moreover, sin, and sin to the devil, and inside they are evil and unrighteous, although outwardly they are good, and unfaithful to their Lord God, like pagans who do not know the true God, since they do not have faith, which teaches us to do everything for God’s sake. And those who are not afraid of civil courts and violate the law have already lost human fear and shame, are in the extreme of error and in their evil behavior are superior even to educated pagans who obey common human morals and observe what royal decrees command. In a word, everyone who obeys man, the monarch and his master not for the sake of God, but for the sake of their fear or reward, serves not God, but man; not God's servant, but a human one; He does not please God, but people, for his work does not come from faith. The faithful servant of Christ, bypassing everything, serves the monarch, or his master, for the sake of God alone, looking at the command of God, since God commanded to obey the authorities. Such a one, even if there was no temporary reward for serviceability or punishment for malfunction, will serve his master sincerely, fearing only God’s wrath for the malfunction. § 353. Another will object: “Do not all Christians serve one Jesus Christ?” Answer. You saw above who serves Christ. Christians who sincerely believe in Christ and show their faith by obedience, all serve the one Christ, and those who do not listen to Christ and do not fulfill His commandments do not serve Him. For there cannot be true and unfeigned service without obedience. Since serving the master and not listening to him is contrary to reason and includes a contradiction in itself, since there is a contradiction - to be a slave and not to be a slave, to serve and not to serve, to honor and not to honor, to love and not to love, and so on. Whom do such Christians serve? They serve their own whims and carnal passions, and in them the devil himself, for they fulfill his evil will and obey him. Isn’t it scary and disgusting to serve the devil, the adversary and enemy of God? Truly scary and disgusting, but truly said. For whoever obeys someone serves him: “Whoever is overcome by someone is his servant,” says the apostle (2 Pet. 2:19). In what way do they obey and serve him? In his evil deeds, in pride, love of money, embezzlement, theft, wickedness, lies, quarrels, fornication, adultery, uncleanness, drunkenness, rancor and other similar deeds. Who will object: “Christ did deliver Christians from the slavery of the devil?” He truly delivered, as stated above, but they themselves returned under his heavy yoke and, leaving their Lord, Whom, as slaves, they were supposed to serve with faith and truth, they went after Satan. Well, aren’t they servants of Christ? Since Christ is the Lord and King of all creation and rules over all good and evil, then all people, good and evil, are His servants. But those who serve Him faithfully are His faithful and good servants. To such Christ says: “Good and faithful servant! You have been faithful in small things, I will put you over many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). And those who do not listen to Him and do not serve Him are also His servants, but they are evil, unfaithful and worthless. About such he says: “Throw out the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30). What do they need to do in order to free themselves from the heavy devilish power and slavery and serve Christ, the King and Lord of all? Answer. They must sincerely turn to Him with repentance and regret and pray to Him to again free them from that yoke and accept them into His blessed kingdom. He, being merciful and loving of mankind, does not want the death of a sinner and will not cast out anyone who comes to Him (John 6:37), which is why He now calls everyone: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,” and so on. (Matthew 11:28-30) - and until the end of the age he will call and accept those who come to Him. For this, let thanksgiving and glory be to Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen. Chapter 5: That a Christian must follow Christ by faith and love. “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example so that we would follow in His footsteps. He committed no sin, and no flattery was in His mouth. Being slandered, He did not slander each other; while suffering, he did not threaten, but handed it over to the Just Judge” (1 Pet. 2:21-23). “I have given you an example, so that you also should do the same as I have done to you,” says Christ (John 13:15). “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me,” says Christ (John 12:26). § 354. Since we come to Christ and by His grace to our Heavenly Father, not with our feet, but with our hearts and faith, not by changing places, but by changing our hearts and thoughts for the better, therefore we will follow Him not with our feet, not by moving from place to place, but by faith, love, will, and changing our lives. During His carnal life on earth, many followed Him with their feet, but their hearts turned away from Him, and many were hostile and angry at Him, such as the scribes, Pharisees and His other enemies. So today, many Christians draw close to Him with their lips, sing to Him, praise Him and say to Him: “Lord, Lord,” but in their hearts they are far from Him: they want to be glorified with Christ, but they do not want to be desecrated. But holy faith, which unites the faithful with Christ, requires that the faithful be everywhere and always, like a member of the head, not separated, that is, here he bears his cross and follows Him, and in the next century reigns in glory with Him. A Christian must not only draw close to Christ with his lips, but also cling to Him and follow Him with his heart, if he wants to please and serve Him faithfully. § 355. Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, while living on earth, not only earned us mercy and blessing from His Heavenly Father, as was said above many times, but also taught us in word and in deed how to please God, to live holy and Christian, since we ourselves did not know what that godly life consists of. For, according to the testimony of Holy Scripture, “The Lord looked down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there was one who understood or sought after God. All have turned aside, all have become completely worthless: there is none who does good, not even one” (Ps. 13:2-3). Therefore, the Son of God appeared on earth in human form and lived holy and blameless among people, so that “he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). And He gave us His holy life as an example to follow, so that we would often look at it, as if in a clean mirror, and by faith in Him we would wipe away the filth that had clung to our souls, as He says: “I have given you an example, so that you also should do the same as I have done to you” (John 13:15). He revealed love, humility, patience, meekness, mercy and other holy properties of His heart, so that we too would do the same things that we see in Him, as He says: “Learn from Me” (Matthew 11:29). That is why the holy apostles present us with the life of Christ to imitate: “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). And St. Paul says: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” and so on (Phil. 2ff.). Notice and give heed to what Christ Jesus has done. He is so great and lofty that there is no one greater and higher than Him, for He is God, but how deeply He humbled Himself for our sake! Look at this living image of humility and learn the same. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” § 356. Whoever wants to follow Christ (every Christian must, as was said above and will be discussed below), must first deny himself. Just as someone who wants to look at heaven must first turn his eyes away from the earth and look at heaven that way, so whoever wants to follow Christ, that is, Christ’s heavenly life, must first deny himself, and so will freely follow Christ. For just as it is impossible to look at heaven and earth at the same time, so it is impossible to follow oneself and Christ. The reason for this is the following: since we are evil by our nature, from the sinner Adam we are all born sinners and sin-loving people, then we conceive nothing other than evil and vain things, but Christ is the purest goodness and holiness, he is light, not involved in any darkness (John 8:12; 1 John 1:5), - therefore we cannot follow Him until we, as evil ones, Let's renounce. That is why He Himself says: “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself” (Matthew 16:24). § 357. We learn what it means to renounce oneself when we look at one who renounces his neighbor. Anyone who has renounced his neighbor moves away from him: when the renouncer is hungry, thirsty, naked, exposed to blows, dishonor, pain, the renouncer does not feel it; when he is in need, he does not help him; when he suffers, he has no compassion for him. We should act the same way towards ourselves when we want to truly renounce ourselves: when we are blasphemed, scolded, slandered, beaten and wounded, deprived of honor and property, imprisoned and put in chains, expelled and removed from home and fatherland - it is as if we could not feel all this on ourselves, as if on someone else, and not on us, all that disaster was happening. It means to deny oneself. So we must renounce (everything) and follow Christ: renounce our will and follow the will of Christ; renounce our evil morals and follow the good morals of Christ; renounce pride, malice, envy, hatred, impatience, love of money, pride, love of glory and other evil habits of the old Adam and follow Christ’s humility, meekness, love, patience, poverty and other Divine morals. No one can be proud and humble, angry and meek, grumbling and patient, avaricious and uncovetous, envious and loving, lustful and chaste, stingy and generous at the same time. For vice and the opposite virtue cannot be combined in one heart, but one drives the other out. When any vice comes out of the heart, then the opposite virtue enters. When pride comes, humility comes. When anger recedes, meekness takes its place. When hatred, envy, stinginess, intemperance, impurity are driven out, then love, mercy, generosity, abstinence, chastity and so on are infused. And the more vice decreases in a person, the more the opposite virtue increases. The more pride decreases in someone, the more humility increases. The more malice, hatred, envy, stinginess, unmercifulness, and impurity diminish, the more meekness, love, generosity, mercy, and purity increase. Whoever wants to follow Christ, humility, meekness, patience, love and His other Divine morals, must leave behind his pride, malice, vengeance, anger, impatience, hatred, envy and other soul-destructive properties of the old man. Someone will ask: “How can this be?” Answer. This is how it is done. Is the lust for uncleanness, fornication and adultery rising in your heart? Your heart lusts, and your heart is you, for the human heart contains the whole person within itself, and there is nothing other than the person himself, understood inside and outside with all his inclinations. Renounce this evil lust, and with lust from yourself, the one who lusts, renounce, and follow in purity and chastity the most pure and holy Christ. Does pride rise in your heart, and, like a serpent, raises its head and wants to bite you? Renounce this abomination, “for whatever is high among men is an abomination to God” (Luke 16:15) - and follow the humble Jesus in humility. Is your heart inflamed with anger, malice, vengeance? Renounce this and follow in meekness the meek and gentle Lamb, Christ Jesus. Is envy and hatred conceived in your heart, like a destructive child from the seed of a serpent? Deny that evil, kill it inside you and follow the love of the man-loving Son of God. Shame of dishonor and fear of death for the sake of truth arise? This is the property of your flesh, which is love-loving and weak. Be encouraged by faith and spirit, renounce your weakness, look at Christ who was mocked, dishonored, ridiculed, spat upon, crucified for your sins, and follow Him with love, who suffered for you. Thus, one must first renounce oneself, and thus follow Christ. And this means “crucifying the flesh with its passions and lusts” (Gal.5:24), “putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Col. 3:9-10; Eph.4:22-24). In a person who has accepted the Christian faith and been renewed by holy baptism, there must be a twofold person, but one who is contrary to himself: the old and the new, as has been said many times above. The old man is nothing more than the sinful passions in us, born with us and inclining us to sin, such as: carnal uncleanness, untruth, lies, deceit, pride, anger, malice, hatred, envy, love of money, love of glory, and so on. The new is a living faith with its fruits, struggling against the old man, in the passions and lusts of the decaying, and the Christian faith requires this feat from every Christian. And in whom there is no such feat, there is only one old man, and therefore there is no faith, which renews a person and struggles against sin, as was also said above. If we want to follow Christ, we must renounce and love the old man, that is, pride, love of money, love of glory, voluptuousness, anger, malice, vengeance and other things, and follow the humility, patience, meekness and love of Christ. Our old man is horrified by dishonor, reproach, reproach, bonds, prison, exile, exile. But when we become Christ’s and follow Christ, we should not listen to the old man, but for the sake of Christ we should despise dishonor and other things that are contrary to us, looking at Him, as He was not ashamed for our sake to be mocked and endure other passions. Our old man is horrified by death, but in this too may our faith strengthen us, and not spare our life where there is need, for the sake of Christ, who “laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). He came before us with humility, patience, meekness, and suffering and showed us the way from earth to heaven. Therefore, we must look to Him, follow Him, and follow Him on that path, and from the old man, who distracts us from that path, denying us and leaving us behind, follow the Author of our faith and Finisher (Heb. 12:2). Christ was born in the flesh, and we must also be born in the spirit. Christ grew - we must also grow spiritually and not always be babes in Christ. Christ was tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11), and we should also be tempted by him and overcome him by the power of Christ. Christ came out to preach his holy Gospel, and taught the truth, and testified to the truth, as He Himself says: “For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37), - we too, when it is necessary and where it is necessary, should not hush up the truth, but fearlessly testify to the word of truth, and what we believe in our hearts, we should confess with our lips. Christ was hated and persecuted for the sake of truth by the enemies of the truth; we, who profess the truth, should also endure the same from the world, for the world does not love the truth. Christ struggled until death, death on the cross, for the truth - so we must also stand for the truth until death, stop lying lips, expose lies and untruths. This is how Christ suffered and entered into His glory, as He tells us: “Is it not necessary for Christ to suffer in this way and enter into His glory” (Luke 24:26)? So we too should follow Him and “through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God,” opened by His blood and death (Acts 14:22). For there is no other way to that kingdom except the narrow, sorrowful and cross path, because the wide gate and the broad path lead to destruction (Matthew 7:13). Someone will object: “How can I renounce myself? This is an impossible thing." Answer: 1) Christ does not command us to completely renounce ourselves: we must feed the hungry flesh, the thirsty flesh to drink, the naked to clothe, the weary to rest, for without this we cannot live. You need to preserve and protect your life. 2) For the honor of His name, in case of need, we must despise both our flesh and life, just as He did not spare Himself for our sake. And without such a need, take care of yourself and your life. For example, when we should either lose our life or sin against Him, in this case we must deny ourselves and lose our life rather than sin against Him. Without this we must preserve ourselves and our lives. 3) When Christ commands us to renounce, it means renunciation of our evil will and evil will, as said above, for without this we cannot please and follow Him. 4) It is also true that we cannot renounce our evil behavior and overcome it with our own strength. For it is impossible to overcome our evil character, to defeat ourselves and to renounce, which is impossible for our own strength. Therefore, for this we must seek help from God Himself, Who can do everything (Matthew 19:26). Therefore, it is commanded to pray, ask, seek and knock (Matthew 7). However, diligence is also required on our part, for God helps those who work, and not those who lie down and are discouraged. § 358. Reasons for which we must deny ourselves and follow Christ: 1) If you do not want to renounce yourself and your bad behavior, do you want to turn again to Satan, his works, his service and his pride, which we renounced at Holy Baptism and entered Christianity and promised to serve God with reverence and righteousness? Having united with Christ by faith, do you want to break this saving union again? Having learned the path of righteousness, do you again want to “turn back from the faithful holy commandment” and show yourself the parable: “the dog returns to his vomit, and the washed pig goes to wallow in the mud” (2 Pet. 2:21-22) - and so fall into the grave slavery of the devil, from which the Son of God redeemed you with His Blood and delivered you to freedom? Do you want to be under God’s wrath and curse again? For all this will certainly follow the one who does not want to hate himself and his evil nature, renounce, mortify and follow the good morality of Christ. “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me,” says Christ (Matthew 10:38). And again: “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels” (Mark 8:38). Are you ashamed of Christ’s humility, patience, meekness, and do you want to be with the world in pride, malice, reverence and glory? You are ashamed of the words of Christ, which teach humility, patience and meekness, and therefore you do not follow His humility, patience and meekness, and so you are ashamed of Christ Himself. Are you ashamed of Christ Himself? He will also be ashamed of you before the holy angels and all His chosen ones. For you have no sign that you are Christ’s. For the sign of Christ’s servant is faith, love, patience, meekness, and so on. Woe will be those whom Christ is ashamed of, renounces and says: “I don’t know you where you come from” (Luke 13:25, 27). “I don’t know you,” because in your pride you did not know Me in My humility. What will follow this terrible saying? The most terrible voice: “Depart from Me, all workers of iniquity. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:27–28). 2) Look and reason how much the sons of this temporary age work and strive for the sake of blessings, do not consider anything burdensome and inconvenient for themselves, in order to receive what they intended and desired. A warrior is not afraid to go against the enemy under bullets, cannonballs, swords and other weapons that threaten obvious death, in order to earn honor and glory from the monarch he serves. The merchant is not afraid to wander through foreign countries, where robberies and other dangers are everywhere, in order to collect perishable treasure. It is not hard for a villager to burn in the heat of the sun all summer and then sweat and work for the desired fruit. What do ambitious people do? What services are provided to princes, nobles and other high officials? Not only themselves, but also their servants are pleased, caressed, and servile in order to receive the desired honor. The hope of temporary bliss so strongly encourages them all and convinces them to endure all sorts of hardships and endure adversity. How can you not be encouraged to heroism by the hope of future eternal and ineffable bliss, when you look to it with faith! I tell you the truth, Christian: the whole world with all its glory, honor, splendor, wealth and other pleasures will disgust you. For the sake of Christ, you will impute dishonor, reproach and reproach to yourself as honor. There is no doubt about that for those who look by faith to the future glory of the sons of God. The word of God depicts it in various ways and presents it to us for consolation and spiritual joy. But Saint Paul, a spectator of God’s unspeakable mysteries, concluded in brief words: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). And Christ says about His elect: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). Temporary good, no matter how great, and no matter how long one has it, must, with the deprivation of this life, be deprived of that, and often retreats from us even before death, but people seek it with such eagerness. Moreover, for the sake of acquiring eternal bliss, which God promised to those who love Him, we should not consider anything painful and inconvenient for ourselves, although it seems sorrowful to our flesh, especially when God Himself promised to help us in this, and helps those who labor and seek Him. “All things are possible to him who believes” and who truly desires (Mark 9:23). 3) Imagine the image and character of both - the old Adam and Christ, who for our sake was a man, and judge diligently: who is better to follow? Pride, arrogance, envy, malice, uncleanness, obscenity, gluttony, theft, deceit, flattery, lies and other abominations - these are the properties of the old Adam. The bestial and brutal disposition of the old man is like a lion in cruelty, cunning and cunning like a fox, theft like a wolf, uncleanliness and gluttony like a dog, malice like a basilisk, and so on. And the morals that are especially and separately present in the dumb are all found in one old man. Such abomination is hidden in the old man, and on occasion it reveals itself with fruits similar to itself. You yourself, seeing this disposition in your neighbor, abhor it, although you have the same disposition in your own heart. For we all carry this evil in our hearts, as if it were born with us. Now turn the eyes of your heart to Christ’s character, which His holy Gospel vividly describes to us. In Him is an ardent love that embraces everyone, friends and enemies, a heart that longs for salvation for everyone, the deepest humility, meekness and long-suffering towards detractors, holiness purer than light, favor towards those who ask, mercy towards the poor, compassion for the suffering, mercy towards sinners, kindness and condescension towards everyone. Do we want to see God the Heavenly Father? We see Him in Christ. Do we want to know His Divine disposition, how generous, merciful, long-suffering and abundantly merciful, how thirsty for our salvation? In Christ, His only begotten Son, we know Him. I offer this to you about our Savior, Christian, not in order to praise Him - He is higher than our praise, Whom the heavenly powers praise, and the sun does not require proof of its light - but in order to present to you His Divine and most good disposition, which by itself attracts and should attract our hearts to love and imitation of Him, and so that, having left the old man's abomination, you would be able to follow Him with faith and love. We must look at this Divine kindness with faith, and, as if looking into a mirror, we wipe away the vices on our faces - looking at it, we must wash away the sins and vices that have stuck to our souls through repentance, the rejection of our evil behavior, and so, with His help, we can be renewed into a new person. It is not only soul-saving, as said above, but also sweet to follow Christ, the most good, merciful, merciful, humble, long-suffering, meek and treasure and living image of all heavenly virtues. So let us renounce our evil spirits, like a stinking stench, and follow this Divine and sweet fragrance. The fragrance of His world is better than all fragrances; His name is like ointment poured out. Draw us after You: let us run in the fragrance of Your peace, sweetest Jesus (cf. Song 1:2-3). 4) Christ is the Head of the Church, the sons of the Church are His faithful members. It is fitting for us, if we want to be true members of Him, to be inseparable from Him, but united with Him by faith and love, and what He does, we should also do, and where He goes, we should follow Him, for the members are not separated from their head, as we see in the material body. Christ is a faithful and wise Leader, Who along the path of this world leads those who follow Him to the heavenly fatherland; we must follow Him if we do not want to get lost on the path of destruction. Christ is the Good Shepherd, we must listen to His voice, with which He calls us to follow Him, and follow Him: “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me” (John 12:26). Christ is our Teacher and Mentor, Who teaches and instructs us on the path of truth; we must learn from Him, what He teaches us both in word and in the manner of immaculate living, and to abide in His word if we want to be His disciples, as He Himself says: “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples” (John 8:31). Christ is the Light of the world (John 8:12), and if we do not want to be in darkness, then we must follow this Light, so that darkness does not overtake us (John 12:35). Christ is the Bridegroom of faithful souls; the faithful must cleave to Him by faith and love and do His will. Christ is the Truth and the Life (John 14:6), we must cling to Him if we do not want to be deceived and die. From what has been said, it follows that if Christ is the Head of the faithful, then those who are not united with Him by faith and love are not His members. They are not united with Him, because they do not follow Him. They do not follow Him, because they do not imitate humility, patience, meekness and other Divine morals. If Christ is the Leader to heaven, then those who do not follow Him are certainly mistaken. If Christ is our Shepherd, then those who do not listen to His voice are not His sheep: “My sheep,” He says, “hear My voice, and I know them; and they follow Me” (John 10:27). If Christ is our Teacher and Mentor, then those who do not learn from Him humility, patience, meekness, etc., are not His disciples. If Christ is Light, then certainly Those walk in darkness who do not follow Him. Those who move away from the light must certainly be in darkness. If Christ is the Bridegroom of faithful souls, then those who withdraw from Him commit adultery. If Christ is the Truth, then those who do not adhere to Him will certainly be deceived and deluded. If Christ is Life, then those who separate and move away from Him are dead, as he says: “For behold, those who separate themselves from You will perish” (Ps. 73:27). You see, beloved Christian, how we need to follow Christ, so that “this is the only thing we need” (Luke 10:42), and on the contrary, how dangerous it is to move away from Him, Who alone has life and blessedness. Let us shake off laziness, despondency and the burden of sin and run after Him, so that He may lead us to His Heavenly Father, to see His most holy kindness face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). For without Him we cannot get there, as He says: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). 5) What Christ’s love requires of us is that with love we should follow Him, who loved us. Loving us, He descended from heaven and came into the world, loving us, the Tall One humbled himself, the Son of God was called the son of man and was pleased, God deigned to appear in the flesh and live on earth, our King and Lord to come to us, vile, poor, accursed and rejected slaves, to come and talk in a slave guise, and to show us the image of humility, patience, meekness and love, to bear the cross and be crucified on the cross for our sake. May this Divine and ardent love of His draw us after Him. “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Outside the gates he deigned to suffer for our sake. “Let us therefore go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:12–13). That is, let us go out of this world, not with our bodies and feet, but with our hearts. Let us leave behind us the lust of the flesh, the lust of selfishness and the pride of life, as our own relatives, “and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:1-2). To him be glory, honor and thanksgiving, with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen. BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THIS ARTICLE 1) The above-described Christian positions towards Christ the Son of God are interconnected, and have their beginning from faith, and one follows from the other. If someone sincerely believes in Christ, he loves Christ. He who loves Christ honors His saving gaze, His birth, His suffering and the Sufferer. He who reveres Christ serves Him diligently. He who diligently serves Him fulfills His word and tries to follow His holy life. For faith is the root of love, and love is the source of good deeds by which we honor Christ and follow Him. 2) The Christian position towards Christ the Son of God is connected with the position towards God. For God commanded us in Christ, His only begotten Son, to believe, love Him, honor, serve and follow Him: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5). And Christ says: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He (the Father) sent” (John 6:29). What Christ the Son of God teaches us, His Heavenly Father tells us and commands us to listen to Him: “Listen to Him!” God in His Son spoke to us, as the apostle wrote: “God, who at times and in divers manners spoke of old to the fathers by the prophets, has spoken in these last days to us by the Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). He who fulfills an office towards Christ also fulfills his office towards God, and whoever leaves his office towards Christ leaves his office towards God. “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23). One cannot believe in God who does not believe in Christ the Son of God. One who does not love, honor and serve Christ cannot love, honor, serve God. And so a person who does not have faith in God is godless, although he confesses God with his lips, for a person must have reverence for God in his heart. 3) Here, the position towards Christ the Son of God is understood in the sense that He appeared in the flesh, suffered the passion and death of the cross for our sake. Otherwise, he also deserves the position that belongs to God, for Christ is God, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, worshiped with the Father and the Holy Spirit. 4) We cannot fulfill our duties to God and Christ the Son of God on our own, since “the flesh always desires what is contrary to the spirit” (Gal. 5:17). Therefore, we must diligently pray that God Himself would help us relentlessly with His grace. 5) He who does not try to render his due to Christ the Son of God, his Redeemer, Savior and Savior, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is ungrateful, and walks in blindness and error, and will certainly perish if he does not feel and turn to God. “But if anyone does not have these things, he is blind, he has closed his eyes, he has forgotten the cleansing of his past sins” (2 Peter 1:9). You might be interested in: