129. Кого же мне любить, как не Его?

We hear one person say about another: “Who should I love if not him?” This is how someone who is asked by another about someone answers: “Do you know if you love him?” Then the lover replies: “Who should I love if not him?” Christian! It is fitting for us to say this word about our God from the heart: “Who should I love if not Him?!” God is the essential, beginningless, infinite, incomprehensible, eternal, unchangeable, highest and all-loving Good, from Whom, as from the source, all goods, visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth, come. Who should we love if not Him? Everyone loves good, and the greater the good, the more he loves it. And although people love evil, they love it not as evil, but under the guise of good. No one is good except God alone (Matthew 19:17). Who should we love if not Him alone? Just as fire is always hot and always warms, just as light is always light and shines, just as honey is always sweet and delights, so God is always and unceasingly Good and always does good. And just as fire cannot but warm, and light cannot but enlighten, and honey cannot but delight, so God cannot but do good. Such is His nature to do good. From Him alone is all good that exists and can be. From Him comes consolation, joy, joy and bliss. Without Him there can be no true bliss, consolation, joy and fun. God also benefits us when He punishes us. For he punishes us in order to correct us; beats us to have mercy on us; breaks us in order to heal us; makes us sad in order to make us happy. He creates everything to please us. Who should we love if not Him? God is our Creator. From Him we have our beginning and our being. Our soul and body and our entire composition are from Him. We are the work of His hands. We didn’t exist, but now we exist and live. His almighty power brought us from non-existence to existence. Thy hands made me and created me (Ps. 119:73). He created us not as an insensitive, dumb creature, but as a rational creature: He honored us with reason. And moreover, He created us in His image and likeness. O kind and so highly venerable creature, man! He carries the image of God within himself, like the seal and banner of the Heavenly King. Our Most Good Creator has honored us so highly, O people! It is said not about Angels, not about any other creature, but about man: Let Us make man in Our image and in Our likeness (Gen. 1:26). Who should we love if not Him? God is our Highest Benefactor, and He provides us with as many benefits as we inhale, so that we cannot live even a minute without His benefits. We are surrounded and enclosed in God's love and His blessings. From Him we receive food, from Him we drink, from Him we receive clothing, and from Him we receive a home. His light shines on us and shows us the way, good and evil, benefit and harm. His fire warms us and cooks our food. By His air our life is preserved. Cattle serve us by His command. What would our life be like if God took away at least some of His blessings from us? What would our eyes profit us if God took away His light from us? They would wander like blind people. Would the earth have given us its fruits if God had not sent His rain upon it? For the Lord will give good, and our land will yield its fruit (Ps. 84:13). A person cannot live without air for even a minute. These and other countless visible blessings are God’s blessings, which He gives us out of His love for us alone. Who should we love if not Him? Who doesn’t love his own good? Unless he's crazy and ungrateful. The devil with his demons constantly takes up arms against us and surrounds us invisibly, and walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Which of us could have been saved from this all-destroying enemy if the almighty right hand of God had not protected us? God protects us and preserves us from it - God, in whose hands are all the ends of the earth, and His holy angels “encamp around us” (Ps. 33:8; Gen. 32:1; Heb. 1:14). And although our enemy tempts us and we endure his attack and torment against our will, this is God’s permission for our benefit, as those who are tempted know. And God allows him as much as we can and is good for us (See 1 Cor. 10:13). This is God’s highest blessing, but since it is invisible, it is recognized by few people. We receive so many blessings from God every day and hour that we do not see and often do not know. And who can recognize and number them? Just as a river flows unceasingly and a living spring unceasingly gives out water, so God’s blessings unceasingly pour out on us. This is how our Benefactor God loves us! The God of our salvation, our God is God for salvation (Ps. 67:20–21). So, who should we love if not Him, such a Benefactor, who loves us so much? Although the whole world testifies to God, and everything in the world leads to the knowledge of Him, and silently admonishes us what kind of reverence a rational creature should give to its Creator, yet our mind, darkened by the darkness of sin, is blind in the knowledge of God, and the truth, and the most holy will of God. Therefore, our Most Good and Humane-loving Creator gave us His holy word through His chosen servants. It, like a lamp, shines on us and reveals God and His Divine properties, and His holy will, and His heavenly secrets; and shows us what is good and what is evil, what is truth and charm, what is virtue and vice, what we owe to the Lord our God and to each other, and thus leads us to our perfection and bliss. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Those who hold this divinely inspired lamp and heed it walk in the light. Those who move away from him remain in darkness and wander like the blind. For the one who moves away from the light will certainly be in darkness. God's word teaches us to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27). Whom should we love if not Him, who provides and cares for us? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). We are lost, O people! God, our Merciful Creator, loved us so much, us unworthy of love, and so the wonderful Providence for us showed that He sent His Only Begotten Son to us to seek and save us. Glory to His love for mankind! This love of His for us convinces us to love Him. Who should we love if not Him? God is our Father. He speaks with us, as with His children, in His holy word; and in our hearts we feel His sweetest conversation; and we pray to Him and cry out: Our Father, who art in heaven, and so on. He provides for us, cares for us, educates us, and prepares an eternal inheritance for us. Whom should we love if not Him, our Father? What child does not love his father, unless he is insane and ungrateful? God shows us great love and mercy in punishing us: for the Lord punishes whomever he loves; he beats every son whom he receives. Having been judged, we are punished by the Lord, so as not to be condemned with the world (Heb. 12:6; 1 Cor. 11:32). “Does the Lord,” they say, “love those whom he gives over to such suffering?” Truly loves! What father does not punish his children, and when he punishes them, does not love them? No. That’s why he punishes because he loves them, punishes them, but prepares an inheritance for them. So God punishes us, but the inheritance of eternal life and the kingdom is prepared for us. The prophets were punished, the apostles were punished, the martyrs were punished, and all the saints were punished; but they were God’s beloved children, and now they are settled in the house of their Heavenly Father, and praise Him forever and ever. Who wouldn’t want to be with them there, with those who are so punished here? God disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness (Heb. 12:10). Blessed is the man whom You discipline, O Lord (Ps. 93:12; Job 5:17). So, the Lord shows us great love when he punishes us. Who should we love if not Him, and how can we not thank Him for His Father’s punishment? Man, if you saw the glory of those who here received punishment from the hand of the Lord, without a doubt, you would kiss every punishment of God, and would desire more suffering than prosperity. Truly God's word: whom the Lord loves, He punishes. When is a person more corrupted and destroyed than when he lives in prosperity? The Most Good God, when punishing us, does not allow us to do this. Glory to His wondrous Providence for us! Who should we love if not Him, and how can we not thank Him for this saving Providence for us? But it is written: Do not love the world, nor the things in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the Father’s love in him. 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 2:15-16). And again: He who has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me. And below: He who does not love Me does not keep My words, says the Lord (John 14:21-24). And one more thing: 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). Christian! Think about these words of God, and look around - so that instead of loving God, you will not be among the enemies of God. Without fail, among them there is a person who fearlessly breaks God’s commandments and unites his heart with the world, even though he confesses the name of God. It is written about such: They say that they know God, but in deeds they deny, being vile and disobedient and incapable of any good work (Titus 1:16). Oh, how many enemies of God there are among those who think that He is revered, who enter churches and pray to Him, and partake of the life-giving Mysteries of Christ, and so on. The enemies of the Lord lied to Him (Ps. 80:16). This was written about lawless Jews, but this word also befits Christians who were washed, sanctified, justified by holy Baptism and promised to serve the Lord God with faith and truth, but turn away after their lusts. Such are the fornicators and adulterers, defilers, predators, thieves, rapists, blasphemers, liars, perjurers and other lawless people, and all who live in the pomp and pride of this world. Do not enter, my soul, into their council. Will not my soul obey God? From Him is my salvation. For He is my God, and my Savior, my Protector (Ps. 61:2). Oh, God, eternal Love and Goodness! Make me worthy to love You, You, Who created me, Who redeemed me, fallen, converted me, who was lost, and enlightened me with His holy word; You, who feeds me, who clothes me, who is my Protector, who preserves me from the slander of the enemy, and who pours out other countless blessings upon me; grant me to love You, my Highest Good and Bliss, and from love to glorify You, thank You, please You, do Your holy will, worship You in Spirit and truth, sing and praise You, the One Whom the Angels in heaven sing and praise incessantly. Yes, and I heartily sing to You with the prophet with a joyful spirit: I will love You, O Lord, my strength! The Lord is my strength, and my refuge, and my Deliverer, my God, my Helper; and I trust in Him; My defender, and the horn of my salvation, and my intercessor (Ps. 17:2-3). You might be interested in: