УЧЕНИЕ

The lofty teaching [of the apostles] was accepted and deserved faith, it flourishes to this day and grows every day, but the teaching of the philosophers has become obsolete, perished, and disappeared more easily than a spider’s web. And quite rightly so, since it was preached by demons. That is why, in addition to shamelessness, it represents much that is dark and difficult to understand. What could be more ridiculous, for example, than that doctrine in which a philosopher, having spent thousands of words in showing what justice is, still tries to explain this question in a long and extremely unclear speech? Even if he had pointed out something useful, it would have remained completely useless for human life. In fact, if a farmer, or a sculptor, or a carpenter, or a helmsman, or anyone else who feeds on the labor of his hands, decided to lag behind his occupation and honest labors in order to spend many years studying what justice is, then, before learning this, for the sake of this very justice, he would have exhausted himself with constant hunger and would have perished, ending his life with a violent death, without having learned anything useful. But our teaching is not like that. In short and clear words, Christ taught us what is just, and honest, and useful, and all virtue in general. So He said, for example, that in “the two commandments the whole law and the prophets are established” (Matthew 22:40), that is, in love for God and neighbor, or also: “as you want people to do to you, so do you to them, for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). All this is understandable and easily understandable for the farmer, and for the slave, and for the widow, and even for the youth and the least understanding. This is the truth! The proof is experience. Everyone really learned what needed to be done, and not only did they learn, but they tried to carry out (what they learned), and not in cities, not only in market places, but also on the tops of mountains. And there you will see great wisdom, and there the faces of Angels shine in human flesh, and heavenly life appears on earth. The fishermen outlined for us the image of this life, commanding us to begin [to learn it] not from childhood, as philosophers did, and not legitimizing a certain number of years for studying virtue, but instructing every age without exception. The teaching of the philosophers is child's play, but the teaching of the apostles is the truth itself. They appointed heaven as the place for this life, and they recognized God as its leader and legislator, as it should be. The rewards for this life are not a laurel wreath, not an olive branch, not a feast in Prytaneia, not copper images, not such empty and useless things, but endless life, adoption to God, rejoicing with the Angels, standing before the royal throne and constant abiding with Christ (6). The teaching of the pagans is absurd, but ours, by the grace of God, is venerable and glorious among the wicked themselves. That is why, when they want to especially reproach us and intensify their slander, they say: “Christian.” They would not have said this if they did not have a high opinion of our teaching (6). You might be interested in: