We must live to love God and make a family. He is love
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.(Luke 10:27).
Do not love the world, nor what is in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him.(1 John 2:15).
The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.(Rom 5:5).
Love is born from dispassion; dispassion from trusting in God; hope from patience and generosity; these last from temperance in everything, temperance from the fear of God, fear from faith in the Lord.
Saint Maxim the Confessor
You can’t take spiritual life from above, but you need to take it from below: first cleanse the soul of passions, acquire patience, humility, etc., then love your neighbor, and then God.
St. Righteous Alexy Mechev
Faith is a benevolent gift; it gives rise to the fear of God in us; the fear of God teaches us to keep the commandments or build a good, active life; out of an active life grows honest dispassion; and the product of dispassion is love, which is the fulfillment of all the commandments, binding and holding them all in itself.
Saint Theodore, Bishop of Edessa
When we were commanded to love God, we also received the power to love that was placed in us at creation.
Love for God is born even without learning, naturally, as gratitude for God's good deeds, for we see that dogs, oxen, donkeys love those who feed them.
Saint Basil the Great
The increase in the fear of God is the beginning of love.
Saint John of the Ladder
No one can love God with all his heart without first warming up the fear of God in the feeling of his heart; for the soul enters active love after it has already been cleansed and softened by the action of the fear of God.
Blessed Diadochus of Photiki
Love is the fruit of prayer.
Love for God is born from a conversation with him. Conversation with him from silence; silence from lack of possession; lack of patience; patience from hatred of lusts; hatred of lusts from the fear of hell and the aspirations of the beatitudes.
He who says that he has not conquered the passions, but loves God, I do not know what he is saying. You will object: I did not say I love, but I love to love. And this is not the case if the soul has not attained purity.
There is no other path to spiritual love, by which the invisible image of God is traced in us, if, first of all, a person does not begin to have mercy in the likeness of the Heavenly Father, who has shown us His perfection in mercy.
Reverend Isaac the Syrian
He who is always in prayer is kindled with the most ardent love for God and receives the grace of the Spirit, who sanctifies the soul.
Venerable Macarius the Great
When we hear that someone loves us, even if he is not noble and poor, we are inflamed with special love for him and show him great respect, then we love him; but our Lord loves us so much and we remain insensitive?
Saint John Chrysostom
Those who often partake of the Body and Blood of our Lord will naturally kindle in themselves aspiration and love for Him on the one hand, because these life-giving and life-giving Body and Blood so warm those who partake (even the most worthless and hard-hearted) in love so much, how incessantly they receive communion; and on the other hand, because the knowledge of love for God is not something alien to us, but is naturally planted inside our hearts as soon as we are born in the flesh and reborn in the spirit in holy Baptism.
Rev. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer
The feeling of love for the Lord comes as the fulfillment of His commandments.
Reverend Nikon of Optina
Some, after reading Holy Scripture that love is the most exalted of virtues, that it is God, they begin and intensify immediately to develop a feeling of love in their hearts, they dissolve their prayers, contemplation of God, all their actions.
God turns away from this unclean sacrifice. He requires love from a person, but true, spiritual, holy love, and not dreamy, carnal, defiled by pride and voluptuousness. It is impossible to love God otherwise than with a heart purified and sanctified by Divine Grace.
Premature striving to develop in oneself a feeling of love for God is already self-delusion. It immediately removes from the correct service to God, immediately leads into various delusions, ends in damage and death of the soul.
Repentance for a sinful life, sorrow for sins voluntary and involuntary, struggle with sinful habits, an effort to overcome them and sorrow for their violent victory, forcing ourselves to fulfill all the gospel commandments, this is our lot. We have to ask for forgiveness from God, to be reconciled with Him, by faithfulness to Him to make amends for infidelity, to replace friendship with sin with hatred of sin. Those who are reconciled have holy love.
Do you want to learn the love of God? Get away from every deed, word, thought, feeling forbidden by the Gospel. By your enmity to sin, so hateful to the all-holy God, show and prove your love for God. Sins into which you happen to fall due to weakness, heal with immediate repentance.
But better try not to admit these sins to yourself by strict vigilance over yourself.
Do you want to learn the love of God? Carefully study the commandments of the Lord in the Gospel and try to turn the Gospel virtues into habits, into your qualities. It is characteristic of the lover to fulfill the will of the beloved with accuracy.
Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov)
To love God with all your heart, you must certainly consider everything earthly as rubbish and not be seduced by anything.
Remember that you are always walking in the presence of the sweetest Jesus. Tell yourself more often: I want to live in such a way that my life pleases my Love, crucified for me on the cross.
Experience has shown that he who does not love his neighbor cannot love God, and he who is ungrateful to people cannot be grateful to God. A limited, small, insignificant being, such as a person, needs to start from a limited, small thing and, with God's help, go to a less limited, to a higher one. Do you have a wife, friends, relatives? Learn first to give them their due, and then you will already be able to give their due to all people and to God Himself.
In order to properly honor the Theotokos, learn first, as you should, to honor your parent. And in order to properly honor the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, learn to honor your father according to the flesh. He who is unfaithful in small and in many things is unfaithful; but he who is faithful in little and much is faithful (Luke 16:10).
St. Righteous John of Kronstadt
You can't love God by treating at least one person badly. This is quite understandable. Love with hostility cannot be in one soul: either one or the other.
Hegumen Nikon (Vorobiev)
The love of prayer continually strengthens our love for God.
Reverend Justin Popovich
An ardent faith in God gives rise to an ardent love for Him and for His image, our fellow man.
Elder Paisios the Holy Mountaineer
You see why we must despise the world, that is, to honor our God; not to love the world in order to love God, to leave the creature in order to find God, to turn away from the creature in order to turn to God. For just as we cannot look to the east and to the west, and to the sky and to the earth at the same time, so we cling to the world and to God with our hearts. When we turn our eyes to the earth, we turn away from heaven, and when we turn to the west, we turn away from the east—just as we turn away from God in our hearts, when we love the world, and when we turn to God from the heart, then we turn away from the world. One of the two must be chosen by everyone. 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 neglect the other (Matt. 6:24).
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
About choosing your path to salvation
Let's think about our choice. Let's think and look into our soul: are we creating an impassable abyss between us and God?
Perhaps, by our negligence, by our inattention to salvation, we atrophy the feeling of spiritual perception in ourselves and become incapable of perceiving the action of Divine grace? If this is true, then what bitter tears we deserve!
While we are still living here on earth, while God's long-suffering is still over us, before it is too late, let us understand the state of our spirit.
And if our heart reaches out to God, to holiness and purity, then let us strengthen this saving choice in ourselves!
If, however, we notice that lack of faith, doubt and other vices creep into our spiritual state, then we will be afraid of this! Let us be afraid of the disastrous abyss in which the rich sinful man found himself, and, invoking Divine help for ourselves, let us eliminate, as long as possible, the disastrous gulf between us and the Lord! Let's make a saving choice not only with our mind, but also with our heart!
How to reach salvation
Salvation is achieved by the constant fulfillment of the commandments of God. So we set ourselves up to fulfill God's commandments, overcoming all difficulties on the path of salvation. And then the path of our salvation will be prosperous. Then the mercy of God will descend on us, strengthen us and save us from all evil. Then we too will attain eternal blessed life in Christ Jesus.
How to Learn to Love God
Why did the Apostle Peter not stand in love for Christ?
This happened because the love for God at that time in the Apostle Peter was still carnal. She has not yet been sanctified by Divine grace and has not received strength from Divine love.
And if so, then there was no firmness in his determination, in his intention to follow Christ to Golgotha to the end.
Yes, it is not easy to love God, we must love Him as the Lord Himself, the Savior of the world, commanded us.
Love for God is only real when it is based on humility, when a person removes carnal imaginary love from his heart. What is the expression of carnal love? It expresses itself in an extraordinary self-produced delight. A person strains all his strength in himself to delight, excites his nervous system, and at the same time the blood boils, an extraordinary imagination and ardor arise. The ardor and ardor of blood and nerves - this is carnal love. Such love is not pleasing to God, for it is offered on the altar of pride. Such love is short-lived, it quickly disappears. Therefore, in order to have constant spiritual love, it is necessary to love God humbly, meekly and strive to achieve spiritual love, which calms the nervous system, cools the impulses of our blood and gives inner peace in a humble and meek spirit.
This is what Divine or spiritual love should be. How can we learn such love? It is possible to learn to love God on the condition that we do everything that the Savior of the world has commanded us to do to the best of our ability and ability.
And not only to fulfill, but also to arouse enmity within your heart against every sin that removes us from the love of God. This is the beginning of love for God.
But only the beginning. In order for this love to be affirmed and strengthened, it is necessary to constantly monitor yourself. And if ever, due to our weakness, we fall into this or that sin, then we must quickly get up and bring sincere tearful repentance.
In order for our heart to constantly remain in love, it is necessary to study in the Gospel the will of God, which the Savior of the world reveals to us, to know what the Lord wants from us, to know His good and perfect will and fulfill it until the end of our lives.
Only with constant fidelity to God, true Divine love is preserved in us. And if at some point in our lives we violate this fidelity, then we thereby violate the love of God. This inner relationship between God's love and our love will be interrupted.
Our love for God must be perfected from day to day. She receives a direct connection with God, enters into unity with Him, and through this unity receives consolation, enlightenment, exaltation.
But we must well understand that in order to achieve or strengthen this love for God, it is necessary to go through a certain path of testing, the path of struggle, and above all - with oneself. Why? Because within us is the old man, smoldering in his lusts. Because it is necessary to kill this old man in yourself, to kill everything sinful. And when we begin to do this, then, naturally, the devil, the father of sin, will rise up against us to protect his property, and then a struggle will arise. Tough fight!
For example, in order to curb our tongue, how much strength, attention, energy is needed! Is it easy to conquer pride, pride, vanity, love of praise or any other sin? Of course, all this requires considerable efforts on our part, constant scolding.
But it is not only in inner temptations that our path passes. Remember what trials the Apostle Peter underwent from the people! Don't we feel a similar fear when some people come to us with questions, “Do you believe in Christ? Are you Christian? Do you go to church?" And what do we answer? Don't we sometimes allow cowardice? Are we not sometimes afraid to confess Christ? We are pathetic at this time, not having the courage to declare that we are really Christians who keep the commandments of God.
So let's test ourselves to see if we truly love God. Doesn't it happen that we try to love God from our carnal wisdom? Do we excite our nerves, hot even in prayer and fasting? Yes, this happens in our life, especially at the beginning of our turning to God, when we, excited by this or that beauty of the Divine, admire, are excited, ready for any feat: fasting excessively, and praying a lot, and doing alms, and for our neighbors. look after. Everything seems to be easy for us! But then this impulse passes, and there comes a period when we are left alone with our natural capabilities. And here already there is not enough strength for any feats, because we still do not have Divine love, which is achieved by constancy and humility. Remember that love for God is necessarily combined with love for your neighbor. How do we know that we love our neighbors and the Lord? If we feel that the memory of malice has died out in us, then we are already on the path of love for our neighbor. If a peaceful, compassionate attitude towards our neighbor under any circumstances has been born in our hearts, then know that we are already at the very door of love for our neighbor and for God.
This is how we need to improve in spiritual love.
How to enter into fellowship with Jesus Christ
“Without Me,” says the Lord, “you cannot do anything.”
Indeed, it is so: in order to achieve eternal salvation, it is necessary to abide closely with Christ. And if a person fulfills this condition, then, undoubtedly, he will gain spiritual success. He will be perfected, will not only flourish spiritually, but also bear fruit of the spirit.
How does a person enter into the closest communion with Christ the Savior? Let's clarify this question.
Christ came to earth to redeem mankind from the curse of sin and death. And in order for a person to come back into unity with his Lord, Christ creates the Church with His Precious Blood. This is His Body, of which He is the head.
And through the Holy Spirit, through the third hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, Christ revives His church body.
Here through this Church, through the Body Christ man enters into the closest communion with Christ the Savior. How is it done?
This is how it is done. Man believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, is the true Lord and true man. Having believed, he receives the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and through this Sacrament he enters the body of the Church, is cleansed of all sin and receives revitalization from the Holy Spirit.
But in order to constantly abide in this organism and become alive, it is not enough just to be outside. No, you need to co-dissolve, merge with the body of the Church, organically unite. To be united as a branch is united to a vine, and constantly quickened by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
And having entered into unity with the body of the Church, to strengthen this unity with love.
This love is manifested in prayer, and in repentance, and in abstinence, and in compassion for one's neighbor.
But this is not enough. Love must also be manifested in constantly crucifying one's flesh with passions and lusts. And not only to crucify, but through deep humility and meekness, through constant communion with the Lord, to achieve the fruits of the Holy Spirit - reverence and truth.
And the fruits of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle Paul testifies, are meekness, temperance, faith, and love.
These are the fruits that we, who are in the body of the Church, need to achieve in order to constantly abide with the Lord.
If we do not strive for this, if we calm ourselves with the fact that we, they say, have received Baptism and chrismation, and then let the Lord Himself guide us, then we will break the mysterious thread that connects us with the Lord by such negligence. And once a rupture occurs, then, naturally, our heart will dry up just as a branch sometimes dries up, which, although it is on the vine, is sometimes infected with something. And as our spiritual organism dries up more and more, removing itself from the action of the grace of God, to the extent that we will subject ourselves to excommunication from the church organism. And then we will be like those dry branches that are separated and thrown into the fire.
Many times the scribes and Pharisees tried to tempt Christ by asking Him various questions. Others asked Him, sincerely wanting to find answers. One question was asked twice by two different people, one of whom wanted to know the truth, and the other wanted to tempt. It was a question about the greatest commandment in the law. Let's read the relevant passages of Scripture.
Matthew 22:35-38
“And one of them, a lawyer, tempting Him, asked, saying: Teacher! What is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind"This is the first and greatest commandment."
Mark 12:28-30
“One of the scribes, hearing their argument and seeing that Jesus answered them well, came up and asked Him: Which is the first of all the commandments? Jesus answered him: the first of all commandments: “Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord; and love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“This is the first commandment!”
1. Loving God: what does it mean?
It is clear from what has been read that loving God with all your heart is the most important commandment. However, what does it mean? We, unfortunately, live in a time when the meaning of the word "love" is reduced only to a feeling. Loving someone is perceived as "feeling good with someone." However, this "feeling" does not necessarily characterize love in its biblical meaning. Scripture speaks of love, which is closely related to action. Therefore, to love God means to fulfill His commandments, His will, that is, to do what God wants. Jesus made this clear:
John 14:15
« If you love me, keep my commandments».
John 14:21-24
« Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he loves me; and whoever loves me, he will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and show myself to him. Judas (not Iscariot) says to Him: Lord! what is it that You want to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered him: 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».
Also in Deuteronomy 5:8-10 (see Ex. 20:5-6) we read:
“Do not make for yourself an idol and no image of what is in heaven above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the waters below the earth, do not worship them and do not serve them; for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing the children for the guilt of the fathers to the third and fourth generation, who hate Me, and showing mercy to a thousand generations who love me and keep my commandments».
It is impossible to separate the love for God and the keeping of His commandments, the Word of God. Jesus Christ spoke clearly about this. Those who love Him keep the Word of God; and whoever does not keep the Word of God does not love Him! Therefore, loving God does not just mean feeling great sitting on a church bench during Sunday worship. Rather, it means that I strive to do what pleases God, what pleases Him. And this is what we must do every day.
In the first epistle of the apostle John there are passages that reveal the meaning of love for God.
1 John 4:19-21:
“Let us love Him, because He first loved us. Whoever says, "I love God," but hates his brother, is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? And we have such a commandment from Him that loving God He also loved his brother."
1 John 5:2-3:
“That we love the children of God, we learn from when We love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome."
1 John 3:22-23:
“And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight. And His commandment is that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He commanded us.”
There are many misconceptions in modern Christianity. One of them, a very serious one, is the false idea that God is not interested in whether we will do His commandments and will or not. The misconception says that only the moment in time when we started in our "faith" is important to God. "Faith" and "love of God" were separated from their practical meaning, and perceived as theoretical ideas and concepts that can exist on their own, without interfering with a person's way of life. However, faith means being faithful. If you have faith, then you must BE true to what you believe! A faithful person should strive to please the One to whom he is faithful. He must do His will, His commandments.
It follows from the above that God's favor and His love are not quite unconditional, as some of us believe. This idea is also seen in the previous passages. John 14:23 says:
“Jesus answered and said to him: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
1 John 3:22:
“And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.”
And Deuteronomy 5:9-10 says:
“Do not worship them and do not serve them; for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, for the guilt of the fathers, punishing the children to the third and fourth generation that hate Me, and showing mercy to a thousand generations to those who love me and keep my commandments».
John 14:23 has an "if" condition followed by an "and" conjunction. If the one who loves Jesus will keep His Word, And as a result, the Heavenly Father will love him, and will come with His Son, and will make an abode with him. The first letter of the Apostle John says that we will receive whatever we ask of Him, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight. The passage from Deuteronomy says that the unchanging love of God will be shown to those who love Him and keep His commandments. There is a definite connection between God's love (as well as His favor) and fulfillment God's will. In other words, let's not think that disobedience to God, disregard for His Word and His commandments, does not matter, because God loves us anyway. Also, don't think that just by saying, "I love God," you really love Him. I think that to understand whether we love God or not, can be from the answer to the following simple question: "Do we do what pleases God: keep His Word, His commandments?" If we answered yes, then we really love God. If our answer is “No,” then we do not love Him. Everything is very simple.
John 14:23-24:
« Whoever loves Me will keep My word;... He who does not love Me does not keep My words».
2. “But I do not feel the will of God”: the example of two brothers
Speaking about doing the will of God, people can also be mistaken. Some Christians believe that we can only do the will of God if we feel it. If we do not feel it, then we are free, because God does not want people to do anything if they do not feel it. But tell me, do you always go to work, guided only by your feelings and feelings? Do you try to figure out how you feel about your work when you wake up in the morning, and then, based on your feelings, you make a decision: finally get out of bed or “burrow” even more under warm blankets? Do you act like this? I don't think. You DO your job regardless of how you feel! But whenever it comes to doing the will of God, we give too much space to our feelings. God, of course, wants us to do His will and feel it. However, even if we do not feel it, it is still better to do His will than not to do it at all! Let's look at the example given by the Lord, where He said: “And if your eye offends you, pluck it out and throw it away from you…” (Matthew 18:9). He didn't say, “If your eye seduces you and you somehow feel the need to rip it out, then do it. But if you don't have that feeling, then you are free from it. You can leave it untouched so that it continues to seduce you." The tainted eye must be removed whether we feel the need or not! The same thing happens with the will of God. The best option is to perform and feel it. If you do not feel it, do it anyway, instead of showing your disobedience to God!
Let's look at another example from the Gospel of Matthew. Chapter 21 tells of how the chief priests and elders of the people again tried to entrap Christ with their questions. The following parable was an answer to one of their questions.
Matthew 21:28-31:
“What do you think? One man had two sons; and he, going up to the first, said: “Son! go and work in my vineyard today.” But he said in response: “I don’t want to”; and then, repentant, he went. And going to another, he said the same. This one said in response: “I am going, sir,” and did not go. Which of the two carried out the will of the father? They say to Him: the first.
Their answer was correct. The first son did not want to do the will of his father. So he simply told him, "I'm not going to work in the vineyard today." But then, after thinking about it, he changed his mind. Who knows what influenced his decision. Perhaps it was his concern for his father. He heard his father's call to work in the vineyard, but he did not have much emotional uplift for this work. Maybe he wanted to sleep a little longer, or take his time to drink his coffee, or go for a walk with his friends. Therefore, he, perhaps still lying in bed, responded to his father's request with his protest: "I will not go." But, finally waking up from sleep, the son thought about his father, about how he loves him, and, changing his mind, forced himself to get out of bed and go and do what his father asked!
The second son, probably also still in bed, said to his father: "Yes, dad, I'll go." But he did not do what he promised! He probably fell asleep again, and then called his friend and disappeared, doing whatever he wanted. Perhaps for a moment he "felt" the need to fulfill the will of his father, but these feelings both came and went. This “feeling” of the need to do the will of God was replaced by another “feeling” that urged me to do something else. Therefore, the son did not go to the vineyard.
Which of these two sons carried out the will of his father? The one who at first did not want to go to work, but went anyway, or the one who felt the need to go, but changed his mind, did not go? The answer is obvious. We have read that love for the Father is expressed in doing His will. Therefore, the question can be asked in another way: “Which of the two sons loved the Father?” or “Which of his sons was the Father pleased with? The one who promised Him to do His will, but, in the end, did not do it, or the one who nevertheless did it? The answer is the same: “The one who did His will!” Conclusion: do the will of God regardless of your feelings! Let your first reaction be: "I won't do it!" or "I don't feel it!" Change your mind and do what God wants you to do. Yes, of course, it is much easier to do the will of God, having a great desire for it. However, when choosing between not doing the will of the Father and doing it without much desire, we must say: "I will do the will of my Father, because I love my Father and want to please Him."
3. Night in Gethsemane
However, this does not mean that we do not have the right or cannot turn to the Father and ask Him for other possible options. Our relationship with Heavenly Father is a real RELATIONSHIP. The Lord desires that communication with His ministering children is always available. The events of the Gethsemane night, when Jesus was handed over for crucifixion, are proof of this. Jesus was in the garden with His disciples, waiting for the betrayer Judas, who was to come, accompanied by the servants of the Israelite chief priests and elders, to arrest Christ and crucify Him. Jesus was in agony. He would rather have this cup passed from Him. He asked his Father about it:
Luke 22:41-44:
And He Himself departed from them a stone's throw, and kneeling down, he prayed, saying: Father! Oh, that You would deign to carry this cup past Me! however, not my will, but yours be done. An angel appeared to him from heaven and strengthened him. And, being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
There is nothing wrong with asking the Father for a way out of the situation. There is nothing wrong with asking Him, “Can I stay at home today and not go to the vineyard?” It would be wrong to stay at home without asking Him about it! This is disobedience. However, there is nothing wrong with asking Him for another option. If there is no other option, then your Father can give you special encouragement and encouragement to willingly do His will. Jesus, while in the Garden of Gethsemane, also received encouragement and support: "And an angel appeared to him from heaven and strengthened him."
Jesus would like the cup of suffering to pass from Him, BUT only if it was the will of God. However, this was not the will of God. Jesus accepted it. When Judas arrived surrounded by soldiers, Jesus addressed Peter, saying:
John 18:11:
“Sheath your sword; shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?»
Jesus always did what pleased the Father, even if He didn't feel like doing it. And in doing so, He pleased the Father, and the Father was always close to Jesus, never leaving Him. Christ said:
John 8:29:
“He who sent me is with me; The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.”
He is an example for us. In Philippians, the apostle Paul tells us:
Philippians 2:5-11:
« For you must have the same feelings as in Christ Jesus: He, being in the image of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men, and becoming in appearance like a man; He humbled Himself, being obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus humbled himself. He said, "Not My will, but Yours be done." Jesus OBEYED! We must follow His example. We must have the mind of Christ, the mind of humility and obedience, the mind that says, "Not my will, but Yours be done!" Paul continues:
Philippians 2:12-13:
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always been obedient, not only in my presence, but much more now during my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, because God works in you both the will and the action according to His good pleasure.”
The apostle, addressing: “Therefore, my beloved,” says that, having an example of great obedience, shown in our Lord Jesus Christ, we also must obey God, “working out our salvation with fear and trembling, because God works in us and will and act according to His own good pleasure. James continues this thought by saying:
James 4:6-10:
"Therefore it is said:" God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble". So, submit to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you; cleanse your hands, sinners; correct your hearts, double-minded. Lament, weep and wail; May your laughter turn into weeping, and your joy into sorrow. Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you».
Conclusion
Loving God with all your heart is the greatest commandment. However, loving God is not a comfortable state of mind in which we “feel” God. Loving God is doing His will! It is impossible to love God and at the same time be disobedient to Him! It is impossible to have faith and be unfaithful to God! Faith is not a state of mind. Faith in God and His Word means being faithful to God and His Word. Let's not be mistaken, trying to separate these concepts. The love of God and His favor descend on those who love God, i.e. do His will and do what pleases Him. As already mentioned, it is better to do the will of God, even if we do not feel the emotional impulse of readiness, than to disobey Him. This does not mean that we must be insensitive robots. We can always turn to the Lord and ask Him about another option if we feel that it is very difficult for us to fulfill His will, but unconditionally accepting any of His answers. God, of course, can open another way for us, because He is the most wonderful Lord and Father, merciful and kind to all His children. If there is no other way, then He will support us in doing His will, which seems impossible to us, just as He supported Jesus that Gethsemane night.
Hieromonk Georgy Sokolov
Dedicated to my spiritual mother
Sheikhumene George (Fedotova) † 03/10/2014
The fresh wind of the chosen ones intoxicated,
Knocked down, raised from the dead,
Because if you don't love
It means that he did not live and did not breathe!
V. Vysotsky
1. Introduction
"God is love" (). After these words, I want to put an end. Not because we have finally settled some dispute about who God is or is not. No, it's just that God revealed himself to man gradually, as he "could accommodate". At first He was a Caring Creator, then a Merciful Providence, and also a Righteous Judge, and a Just Requiterer. And yet ... you can give many suitable names, but all this was, as it were, "in part", as a kind of allusion to some kind of perfection, with the advent of which "that which is in part will cease." And this perfect thing came and appeared in the fact that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” ().
During its existence, Christianity has formulated several different understandings of the meaning of the Savior's Sacrifice on the Cross. It was both redemption from sin, and liberation from the curse, and victory over death, and victory over the devil. But one simple question can be applied to all these points of view: Couldn't an almighty God have done all this without being crucified on the Cross? What was the need to incarnate and suffer? God took on human nature in order to heal it from sin, because, according to the word of St. Gregory of Nazianzus: “What is not perceived is not healed.” But could not He who originally created this nature by the mere will of His Will also heal it? God took on human nature for the sake of deifying it. As St. "God became man so that man might become God." Couldn't the One who created Adam god-like also, without incarnation, deify the nature of fallen man? Do we not diminish the omnipotence of God and make God dependent on something when we say that the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of the Cross were absolutely necessary for God to accomplish our salvation and deification? Answering all these questions, it is absolutely necessary to admit that God could save us without resorting to the Incarnation and, moreover, to death on the cross. But He did it nonetheless. What for?
To answer this question, let us assume that there was no Incarnation and no Sacrifice on the Cross. Just at one moment the Heavens opened and a loud voice sounded from there: “I forgive and allow!” If we were saved this way, what would be different? It would seem, nothing. But in fact, a lot would change - we would never know how much God loves us, and what He is ready for for us. He came to us, became one of us, became our friend, and suffered for us just to show us His love. “There is no greater love than if someone lays down his life for his friends” (). The true meaning of the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of the Cross is the revelation of God's love to the human race. All other meanings pale before this meaning.
During the first century of the existence of Christianity, the holy fathers Orthodox Church They discussed the question to whom the Cross Sacrifice of Christ the Savior was offered. Their opinions and answers did not always agree with each other. Only the Councils of Constantinople 1156-1157. developed a certain point of view in answering this question, deciding that the Sacrifice of the Savior was offered to the entire Holy Trinity. But, as we have already pointed out, God had no need for this sacrifice, so it can also be said that this sacrifice of love was also offered to us.
But if God desired to reveal Himself to people precisely as love, then wouldn't it be more correct to talk about Him precisely as love? Most modern secular sciences are built on the basis of some self-evident axioms that are not proven, and on this basis all further scientific theories are built. For example, the theory of relativity underlying modern physics is based on the postulate that the speed of light in a vacuum is the maximum possible speed in the universe. Of course, theology cannot be put on a par with the secular sciences, if only because its age is equal to the age of mankind, and most of the secular sciences are two or three hundred years old, but it seems quite possible to use their principle of construction for theology.
This book is a small attempt to build our reasoning about God on the basis that He is love. Sometimes it is interesting to simply replace the word "God" with the word "love" in any judgment about God and see what happens.
2. Suffering God
But why did God show us His love? There is only one answer: to teach us to love as well. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another; as I have loved you, so let you also love one another.” If God is love, then the essence of salvation and being like God is to learn to love as He has loved us. The Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of love, and only a lover can enter it. In the Holy Fathers one can read that a person grows in love for God, as it were, in three stages. At the first stage, he serves God out of fear of punishment, like a slave. In the second stage, a person pleases God for the sake of receiving a reward or payment, like a hired hand. And, finally, at the third stage, a person fulfills the commands of God solely out of love for Him, like a son who does not want to grieve his Father. But God does not grow in love: no matter how we treat Him, He always loves us as a Father. Therefore, when we sin, we do not really anger Him like a master's slave, and we do not offend Him like a master's hireling, but we hurt Him, as a son hurts his father by his disobedience. Yes, the Godhead is impassive, but He is not insensible, and our sins cause Him grief. An example of this is the story of miraculous icon Mother of God, called "Unexpected Joy".
“A certain sinful person had a daily custom - to pray to the Most Holy Theotokos, often repeating the words of an angelic greeting: “Rejoice, Blessed One!” One day, when he was going to commit a nasty iniquity, he turned to the image in order to first make the usual prayer to Her, and then go on a deliberate evil deed. When he began to pray, fear and horror attacked him: he sees the image moving and the living Mother of God with her Son. He looks, the sores of the Infant have opened on the arms and legs, and in the side, and blood flows from them in streams, as on the Cross. Seeing this, he fell down in fear and cried out, “O Lady, who did this?” The Mother of God answered: “You and other sinners are again crucifying My Son, like the Jews.” Then the sinner wept, saying: "Have mercy on me, O Mother of Mercy!" She answered him: “You call Me the Mother of Mercy, but you fill Me with sorrow with your deeds.” And the sinner said: “No, Mistress, may my malice not overcome Thy inexpressible goodness and mercy, Thou art the only hope and refuge for all sinners. Bow to mercy, good Mother! Pray for me your Son and my Creator!” Then the Blessed Mother began to pray to her Son: "My merciful Son, for the sake of My love, have mercy on this sinner." But the Son answered: “Do not be angry, My Mother, that I will not listen to You. And I prayed to the Father that the cup of suffering would pass from Me - and did not listen to Me. Then the Mother said: “My son! Remember the one who nursed you and forgive him." The Son answered: “And the second time I prayed to the Father for a cup, and did not listen to Me” (see). The Mother asked again: “Remember My illnesses that you endured with you when you were on the Cross with your body, but I was stung by my womb under the Cross, for a weapon passed through my soul” (see). The Son answered: “And for the third time he prayed to the Father, that he would carry the cup by, but he did not deign to listen.” Then the Mother sat the Son down and wanted to fall at His feet, but the Son cried out: “What do you want to do, O Mother?” “I will,” he says, “lay at your feet with this sinner until you forgive him his sins.” Then the Son said: “The law commands the Son to honor the Mother, but the truth wants the Lawgiver Himself to be the executor of the law. I am Your Son, You are My Mother, and I must honor You by listening to Your prayers. Let it be as you wish: now his sins are forgiven for your sake. As a sign of forgiveness, let him kiss My sores." Rising, the sinner reverently touched His most pure ulcers with his lips and came to himself. When the vision disappeared, he felt his heart filled with trembling and joy, began to weep and sob even more strongly, falling to the image of the Lady, thanking and praying that he would always have mercy, as he saw in a terrible vision the goodness of the Lord, forgiving sins. And since then he has corrected his life.
Few people think about the fact that we worship a suffering God. The central and main symbol of Christ's Church is the Cross, and we worship it, but the Savior is crucified on it. In the ancient Roman Empire, the Romans were hostile to Christianity partly because they believed it preached cannibalism: “How can you eat the flesh and drink the blood of your God?!” they said. For us, the words that the priest proclaims for Divine Liturgy: “Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you for the remission of sins” and “Drink all of it, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins.” And many holy saints of God saw how during the Liturgy an infant is brought by angels, who is slaughtered by them, divided and taught to believers in the Holy Chalice. God suffers because of us, because of our sins. Therefore, the love of God was revealed to us precisely in suffering for us. In another way, this idea can be expressed in such a way that God as love was revealed to us on the cross.
3. Image and likeness
If God is love, then the first thing to say is that love cannot be created. Everything else can be created, but love is not. So, love is uncreatable, but you can create a receptacle for it, some of its temple, in which it would dwell and manifest itself. This temple, according to the Divine Plan, is a human person. "Don't you know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you?" - writes St. Apostle Paul: “If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple of God is holy; and this temple is you "(). “You created us for Yourself, and our heart does not rest until it rests in You,” he says. But the process of creation in general, and in particular the creation of man, is not simply the bringing into being of some ideal image of a person who is in the Divine consciousness, but a complex creative process of realizing the Divine plan for a person, which is more reminiscent of the cultivation of a human personality, just as what is thrown into ground grain.
Therefore, the process of human formation did not end with the creation of Adam, rather, it just began. The Book of Genesis indirectly confirms this, for having said about the command of the Lord: “let us make man in our image and after our likeness” (), then he says: “And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him” (). Thus, the Lord is silent about the creation “according to the likeness”, indicating by this that the growth of man has not yet been completed. More clearly, St. Apostle Paul in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: “So it is written: the first man Adam became a living soul; and the last Adam is a life-giving spirit" (); “The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second person is the Lord from heaven "(); “And as we wore the image of earth, we will also wear the image of the heavenly” (). You can also remember blzh. Augustine, who said that Adam was in a state that is expressed by the formula "I can not sin," and he had to reach the state "I cannot sin." So, the perfection of man is not completed, and will end only after the General Resurrection.
What was the imperfection of the newly created Adam and what did he lack? As the temple of God it possessed the totality of perfection, but that temple was not yet filled with the One for whom it was intended. That is, Adam did not yet have God in himself, or, in other words, he did not have perfect love in himself. This conclusion may seem very bold, but this is indicated by the first test of love that Adam failed to pass - a violation of the first commandment. The fact that Adam did not have love for God and love for his neighbor (Eve) is also confirmed by his answer to God after the fall: “Adam said: the wife that You gave me, she gave me from a tree, and I ate” (). That is, Adam chose to blame his neighbor, and even God himself, for his wrongdoing, rather than himself. One cannot but agree that Adam had some imperfection in himself, otherwise the fall into sin would not have occurred. In the first conciliar message St. Apostle John the Theologian writes: “Whoever abides in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him and has not known Him ”(), and even further: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (). Man still had to know God or know love, to let love into himself, to grow it in himself. Therefore, the entire history of the relationship between God and man, set forth in Holy Scripture, is the history of the knowledge of God, or the history of man's knowledge of love, or the history of man's learning to love.
Almost all writers and teachers of the Church dealt in one way or another with the question of the likeness of man to God. AT ancient times The image of God was usually seen in some kind of human ability, while over time, church writers were ready to understand the totality of spiritual gifts or abilities under the concept of the image of God, more and more content was put into this biblical expression. Almost the majority of church writers wanted to see the image of God in rationality (spirituality). Some allowed, along with spirituality or rationality, free will as a sign of the image of God. Others saw the image of God in immortality, in the dominant or commanding position of man in the universe. The image of God in man was also understood by the teachers of the Church as both holiness, or, more precisely, the ability for moral improvement, and also as the ability for creativity.
Some of the church writers distinguished image from likeness, while others were inclined to consider these expressions as synonyms. In the biblical description of the creation of man, a well-known distinction is made between "in the image" and "after the likeness." Speaking about the advice of the Trinity Deity before the creation of man, the holy prophet Moses tells that God decided to create man in His image and likeness: “And God said: Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness ...” (). Describing the creation itself, Moses says: “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him ...” (), and omits the words “in the likeness”. “Why is the supposed not carried out,” asks the saint. – Why is it not said: “And God created man in the image of God, and after his likeness? Has the Creator failed? It's shameless to say something like that. Has the Creator changed His intention? “It’s godless to even think of something like that. Said and changed intention? - Not. Holy Scripture does not say that the Creator was exhausted, nor that the intention remained unfulfilled. For what reason then is silent - "in the likeness"? The reason is that “in the image” we have by creation, and “in the likeness” we acquire by our own will. To be in the image of God is peculiar to us from our first creation, but to become in the likeness of God depends on our will.
So, the image is what the Creator originally put into a person, and the likeness is what was to be achieved as a result of a virtuous life. But, as we have already pointed out, Adam had everything except the perfect love that he was to achieve. Therefore, if God is love, then the godlikeness of man lies in love. “Love in its quality is likeness to God, as much as people can achieve,” says St. .
4. Knowledge of God
Probably, many who read the Gospel were repeatedly embarrassed by the fact that the Savior seeks to hide His miracles. A vivid example of this is the Gospel story of the Transfiguration: Christ was followed by several hundred people, but he takes only three of his closest disciples, raises them alone to the mountain and is secretly transfigured before them. It would seem that there is no better opportunity to convince people of His Divine sonship: everyone would see His miraculous Transfiguration, they would hear the Father's voice. But the Savior does not do this, and this example is far from the only one. Also, after His miraculous Resurrection, the Lord appears only to His closest disciples, and even then not immediately. Why, one wonders, did He not appear to those bishops, elders and scribes who betrayed Him to be crucified, and in general to all the people who shouted to Pilate: “Crucify Him!”, and to Pontius Pilate himself? After all, then they would probably believe and be saved. Moreover, in the course of the Gospel narrative, Christ repeatedly denounces those who seek miracles, saying: “The evil and adulterous generation is looking for a sign, and no sign will be given to it, except for the sign of Jonah the prophet” (). In general, this question can be expanded and put like this: why does the almighty God not show a person during his earthly life clear evidence of His existence? After all, there is no doubt that in the realm of reason there is no proof of the existence of God. It is impossible to prove that God exists, just as it is impossible to prove that He does not exist.
Let's try to answer this question this way: since God is love, knowing Him is not a matter of the human mind, but a matter of the human heart. Here, in general, I would like to be skeptical about the cognitive abilities of the human mind, which in its rational activity does not deal directly with a cognizable thing, but with its own idea of this thing, which is formed through perception. This way of cognition is imperfect, you can perfectly know something only by letting this something into yourself, or becoming this something. The human heart, which was originally created and intended for the knowledge of God, possesses this ability of cognition. The fact that God is known by the heart is repeatedly pointed out by the Savior in the Gospel. So, for example, He tells the disciples about the Jews: “... the prophecy of Isaiah comes true over them, which says: hear with your ears - and you will not understand, and you will look with your eyes - and you will not see, for the heart of these people is hardened and they hear with difficulty with their ears, and their eyes they have closed their own, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and lest they turn so that I heal them ”(). AT this case, speaking of hearing, sight and understanding, Christ points to the cognitive abilities of the human heart. Unfortunately, if a person's heart for a long time is a receptacle of sin, and not of love, then it gradually loses its God-cognizing ability, as if coarsening and deadening, as indicated by the above excerpt from the Gospel. When it is said that a person knows God with his heart, then here the heart is understood not as the anatomical organ that sets the blood in motion, but as the center of spiritual life and the location of the spirit in a person. The heart, as an internal bodily organ, has contact with the soul in an incomprehensible way, and therefore a person feels all spiritual experiences through the heart.
It should be noted that the heart of a person initially knows about the existence of God, although this is usually not realized by the mind. This idea was brilliantly expressed by an outstanding early Christian theologian when he said that the human soul is by nature a Christian. In addition, in a person, the heart is always dominant, and not the mind, as it may seem. The mind is always engaged in what the heart wants, what it strives for, but not vice versa. Therefore, if a person says that he does not believe in God, and tries to prove to himself and others that He does not exist, then in fact he simply hates God with his heart, and secretly even from himself. In this case, it is useless to prove anything, besides, it would be a violation of human freedom. On the contrary, a person who has a loving heart will never need proof of the existence of God and will always willingly accept God with his mind. In this case, evidence is simply not needed.
Why, then, did the Lord still perform miracles? To influence a person's heart through the mind of a person. This is possible to some extent, and it is not for nothing that most of the miracles of Christ are connected precisely with works of mercy, that is, they affect the human heart. So the apostle and evangelist Mark narrates that the Savior, when the disciples were in poverty in swimming, performed the miracle of walking on the waters, because the apostles “did not understand the miracle of the bread, because their heart was hardened” (). Often, miracles are also necessary for those people who are facing serious trials of faith. Thus, during the Transfiguration, the Lord took with Him the apostles Peter, James and John. All of them faced serious trials in the near future: the Apostle Peter would follow Christ after His capture by the Jews, the Apostle John would be present at the Crucifixion of Christ, the Apostle James would be the first of the apostles to be martyred. But all the same, with regard to all miracles, we can say: “blessed are those who have not seen and believed” (), because true faith in the mind can only come from God who is in the heart.
5. Exams of love
The process of knowing God, like other learning processes, involves some kind of learning situations, some kind of exams. Such an examination, or a complex of such examinations, is for a person earthly life. Every day, hourly, and sometimes even every minute, the All-Wise Lord creates situations for us in which He knocks at the door of our heart and asks Him to let Him in: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and I will dine with him, and he with me. This situation is the test of love. You can pass it, you can not pass it, and if you don’t pass it, you can retake it. Failure to pass the exam is also called a sin, which can also be called the rejection of love, the denial of love or dislike.
The fact that life is a test of love is figuratively confirmed by the Lord Himself in the parable of the sheep and the goats placed on the right hand and on the left. Those who have successfully passed this exam will be told thus: “…come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you accepted Me; was naked, and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me" (). Those who failed the exam will be told this: “...depart from me, cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry, and you gave me no food; I was thirsty, and you did not give Me drink; I was a stranger, and they did not receive me; was naked, and they did not clothe me; sick and in prison, and did not visit Me" (). Of course, the deeds of love are not limited to the above deeds. Constantly throughout life, in deeds, words, even thoughts, a person is offered a choice: between good and evil, between the will of God and sin, between love and dislike. And the free will of a person is absolutely completely reduced to the freedom to choose between these two options. This choice cannot be refused, more precisely, refusal means a negative answer. And there is nothing in between that one could choose, just as there is nothing in between truth and falsehood, between good and evil, between God and the devil, between love and dislike.
In the Gospel of Luke there is a story about the dialogue of Christ with a certain Jewish teacher of the law, who “rose and, tempting Him, said: Teacher! what should I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, What is written in the law? how do you read? He answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus said to him: You answered correctly; do so, and you will live. But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbor? Jesus said to this: a certain man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was caught by robbers, who took off his clothes, wounded him and left, leaving him barely alive. By chance, a priest was walking along that road and, seeing him, passed by. Likewise, the Levite, being at that place, approached, looked, and passed by. But a certain Samaritan, passing by, found him, and, seeing him, had compassion, and, going up, bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine; and putting him on his donkey, he brought him to an inn and took care of him; and the next day, as he was leaving, he took out two denarii, gave it to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him; and if you spend more, I will give it to you when I return. Which of these three, do you think, was the neighbor of the one who was caught by the robbers? He said: Who showed him mercy. Then Jesus said to him: go, and you do the same ”().
The described situation is the best way to show what the test of love is. In this case, she knocked on the heart of everyone who saw the one who was caught by the robbers, but only the Samaritan opened it, and between him and the victim those same mysterious relationships were established in which people are called neighbors or friends. It is these people that the Lord commands to love, and commands both in the Old and New Testaments with a slight difference in wording. But we have called this relationship mysterious for a reason, because human mind it is not clear who the neighbor is; only love that dwells in the heart can point to him. In other words, God Himself, having entered the heart of a person, indicates to him who his neighbor is and what needs to be done for him at the moment. But God and all His actions in the human heart are incomprehensible by reason. It is impossible to explain to the mind what love is and how it works, you can only point out, draw an analogy, make a hint. Therefore, the Savior does not give a direct answer to the lawyer's question, but tells a parable. In general, most of the parables of Christ are such a kind of hints for the mind, through which God seeks to enter the human heart and revive it.
Often people, not understanding all this, say that everyone is neighbor, and that you need to love everyone. But the Lord does not say: love everyone, He says: love your neighbors, friends. Yes, indeed, every person can become a neighbor, a friend, but not everyone is one. A frequent consequence of this reasoning that neighbors are everything is a course of action in which a person begins to do good to those people who do not need his help at all, but pass by those who at the moment most need his love. Therefore, if we try to formulate the answer to the question as precisely as possible: who is the neighbor, we can say that this is the one who at the moment most needs our attention, help and support. But even having such a formulation in the mind, one can make a mistake, because only God, who is in the heart, can truly indicate who the neighbor is. And in order for Him to stay there, He must be let in, which the Samaritan did.
The Old Testament priests who passed by the robbers did not at all consider themselves hard-hearted and did not think that they were violating the commandment to love one's neighbor. Just according to their reasoning, this person could not be considered a neighbor. They preferred to be guided by the arguments of reason and did not hear God knocking at the heart. You might think that in a person the mind is a negative component and fights with the heart, but this is by no means the case. The heart, as we have already said, always dominates, the mind only presents its arguments to it. The struggle between love and dislike takes place in the heart. “Here the devil fights with God, and the field of struggle is the hearts of people,” writes F.M. Dostoevsky. And this is more likely not even a struggle, but a free choice of the heart between one and the other. Therefore, the mind is not the source of sin, but the heart, “for from within, from the human heart, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, malice, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness - all this evil comes from within and defiles a person ”().
6. Virtues
Manifestations of love in a person are called virtues. Much has been written about the fact that love is the basis and source of all virtues. Here is how the apostle Paul speaks about it, for example: “Love is long-suffering, kind, love does not envy, love does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not think evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; covers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything ”(). Or in another place: “Most of all, put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (). “All the perfections that lie in the concept of virtue grow from the root of love; so that he who has it does not lack in other virtues either,” writes St. . The need to perform virtues is expressed by God in the form of commandments given to man. It should be noted that the more a person strives to fulfill the commandments, that is, the more he strives to show love, the more God strives to fill his heart. AT Old Testament this is expressed by the following words of God: “I love those who love me, and those who seek me will find me” (). In the New Testament, the Savior says: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he loves me; and whoever loves me, he will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and show myself to him" (). And also: “... 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. Conversely, the more love fills a person, the more it seeks to manifest itself in him in the form of virtues. “You are the light of the world. A city on top of a mountain cannot hide. And, having lighted a candle, they do not put it under a vessel, but on a candlestick, and it shines for everyone in the house ”(). It turns out that love is, as it were, both the cause and the effect of virtues.
It is impossible to do virtues without having God (love) in oneself: “for without Me you can do nothing” () - says the Savior. More precisely, if you try to do them not for the sake of love, that is, not for the sake of Christ, then such virtues will not be true and will not bring benefits to a person. “Love is so superior to all the virtues that without it none of them, nor all of them together, will bring any benefit to the one who has acquired them,” writes St. . Everyone knows the following statement of the Apostle Paul: “If I speak in human and angelic languages, but do not have love, then I am a ringing brass or a sounding cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and have all knowledge and all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, then I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions and give my body to be burned, but I do not have love, there is no use for me in that ”(). From this passage it follows that a person can be a believer in the mind (although such faith cannot be called true), fulfilling the commandments, but at the same time his heart can be far from God, and he can be guided not by love, but by completely different motives. This is confirmed in particular by the words of Christ: “Many will say to Me in that day: Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? and did they not cast out demons in your name? and did not many miracles work in your name? And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity." That is, a person can have such faith that he will prophesy, cast out demons, perform many miracles, but at the same time not know God in his heart. There is an example of this in the hagiographic heritage, it sounds something like this: there was a certain old man who, in the way of his life, was revered by everyone as a saint. But when he was dying, another elder had a vision that angels were arguing with demons for the soul of the dying man, and this dispute was stopped by the voice of the Son of God addressed to the demons: “Take him and give him no rest, just as I did not find rest in his heart. ". According to the interpretation of the holy fathers, the dying elder, during his outwardly righteous life, was guided in all his affairs by pride and vanity.
The holy fathers have such an opinion that the good done not for the sake of Christ is not true. This will be the so-called hypocrisy or slyness. In the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord tells the Pharisees: “Blood of vipers! how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Therefore, this sin is also sometimes called hypocrisy. There is one very good saying by an unknown author, which perfectly reflects what virtues turn into without love:
Duty without love makes a person irritable.
Responsibility without love makes a person unceremonious.
Justice without love makes a person cruel.
Truth without love makes a person a critic.
Education without love makes a person two-faced.
Friendliness without love makes a person hypocritical.
Mind without love makes a person cunning.
Competence without love makes a person unyielding.
Honor without love makes a person arrogant.
Power without love makes a person a rapist.
Wealth without love makes a person greedy.
Faith without love makes a man a fanatic."
And this list can be supplemented and supplemented. The author of these lines personally had to observe how even such a great virtue as monastic obedience, performed not for the sake of love, turned into a complete perversion, which was expressed in the fact that for the sake of the imaginary fulfillment of this virtue, a person violated the basic laws of love. I always wanted to tell him: it is impossible not to love for the sake of obedience. Obedience is above fasting and prayer, but not above love. How can a person be guided by performing virtues not for the sake of love? Obviously some kind of passion. Usually it is pride, but a separate conversation about it.
In addition to fulfilling the commandments, there are also various pious exercises that draw God into the heart of a person, prepare the heart to receive love. Sometimes they are also called virtues. These exercises include prayer, fasting, participation in worship, reading the Holy Scriptures, and others. Especially in this regard, the holy fathers praised unceasing mental-heart prayer. However, just as in the case of virtues, if these deeds of piety are not done for the sake of love, then they not only do not bring benefits, but can even harm a person, which in spiritual life is called prelest. Here is how Rev. in a conversation with N. A. Motovilov about the goal of the Christian life: “Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian deeds, no matter how good they are in themselves, however, the goal of our Christian life is not only in doing them, although they serve as necessary means to achieve it. The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting, and vigil, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for the sake of Christ are the means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Note, father, that only for the sake of Christ, a good deed done brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, what is done not for the sake of Christ, although it is good, does not present us with bribes in the life of the future age, and in this life it also does not give the grace of God.
Therefore, it is necessary to always be aware of why we perform certain virtues, remembering that their true goal is the acquisition of love. We will not contradict St. Seraphim in the least, saying that the meaning of human life lies in the acquisition of love, if we remember that the Holy Spirit is God, and God is love.
7. Spiritual Constants
If, according to St. Apostle John the Theologian, “God is love” (), the same can be said about a person who is created in the image of God, he is also love. Love, as attraction, striving for something, is the main manifestation of human nature, as if by its very essence. From birth, a person acquires for himself some stable ideas about love, you can call them spiritual constants. Or, in another way, this is what is sacred for a person, which is, as it were, a stable characteristic of his personality and motivates all of its activities. By and large, such spiritual constants are the same for all people, among them one can especially distinguish: love for God, love for the Motherland, love for a mother, love for one's close friend, love for one's children. It is said about a person that he was formed as a person exactly when these spiritual characteristics are formed in him.
It is interesting that every temptation seeks to destroy, to damage these spiritual constants. The goal of the devil is by no means the physical death of a person, but precisely damage, destruction of him as a person, his spiritual destruction. Disorientation of the very essence of human nature leads to damage to the very image of God in man, turning him into an animal. The main value of a person for God is his ability to love, that is, to realize the image of God in himself, and the main goal of the devil is to damage this image.
During the Chechen war, Chechen fighters, mocking captured Russian soldiers, forced them to renounce God, their Motherland and their mother. Regarding God and the Motherland, this is understandable, because they fought for their faith and fatherland, but where does the mother have to do with it? Oddly enough, but it is love for parents, for father and mother, that is the most fundamental, most central and most stable spiritual constant of the personality, and it is precisely this that the devil seeks to destroy most of all through temptations. AT modern world You can find a lot of diverse and varied evidence for this. So, for example, swearing - the very name of this very common phenomenon already indicates that it offends the most sacred - the mother. The notorious juvenile justice is nothing more than an attempt to destroy the fundamental love ties of parents and children. It is also very characteristic that the vast majority of totalitarian sects persistently strive to instill in their adherents, if not hatred, then indifference to their parents. In church tradition, information about the life of Judas Iscariot has been preserved: he cohabited with his mother, that is, he defiled the most sacred. A person may not have God, in the sense that he may be an unbeliever, or not have a Motherland, in the sense that he grew up in a foreign land, but such a person has not yet been born who would not have a mother.
In modern psychology, there is a very interesting theory about the basic perinatal matrices, which was introduced and developed by Stanislav Grof, one of the founders of transpersonal psychology, in 1975 in his work “Regions of the Human Unconscious”. According to this theory, during fetal development and childbirth, a person experiences a special unconscious experience that has a fundamental impact on all subsequent life and becomes the basis of the entire psychological portrait of a person. Stanislav Grof in his works postulated that the human psyche is formed not so much at the biographical stage as in the perinatal (prebiographical) period, corresponding to the stage of the embryo and the process of childbirth. These areas of the unconscious were called the term "basic perinatal matrices", they were allocated 4 according to the successive physiological stages of pregnancy and childbirth:
- The static stay of the embryo in the womb, characterized by peace, serenity and equanimity. The predominance of this matrix in the human subconscious corresponds, according to the classification of Hippocrates, to the type of phlegmatic temperament.
- The first phase of childbirth, that is, contractions. In the subconscious of a person, they are associated with feelings of fear, anxiety, excitement, depression. The predominance of this matrix in the subconscious is characteristic of a melancholic.
- The second phase of labor is when the baby passes through the birth canal. Here there are sensations of struggle, shocks, pain, strong excitement. The predominance of this matrix in the subconscious is characteristic of a choleric person.
- Birth and the first minutes after it. Feelings of liberation, love, joy, salvation, which corresponds to the type of sanguine temperament.
Although the theory of perinatal matrices is often criticized among Christians for unacceptable expansion into the spiritual sphere of the individual, nevertheless, the practical reliability of this theory shows the strength of the spiritual ties between mother and child in the best possible way. The strength of these ties is confirmed by numerous testimonies of the grace-filled help to the child through the prayers of the mother, therefore, a proverb even arose among the people: “The mother’s prayer will get it from the bottom of the sea.”
From Ancient Greece a very beautiful legend about two halves, once described by Plato, came to us. According to this legend, people were once four-armed, four-legged creatures, with two faces on one head, with two "shameful parts". They were called "androgynous". These people possessed great strength and power, and one day they decided to raise an uprising against the gods in order to rule the world themselves. The gods, having learned about this, were angry, and the supreme ruler Zeus punished the recalcitrant: he divided each creature in half and scattered these halves all over the world. So there were modern people- two-armed, two-legged, with one face on the head. Since then, the separated halves have been looking for each other. If someone happens to meet just their half, both are embraced by such an amazing feeling of affection, closeness and love that they truly do not want to be separated even for a short time. And people who spend their whole lives together cannot even say what they actually want from each other, because it cannot be argued that they strive so zealously to be together just for the sake of satisfying lust. The halves are looking for each other, and happiness, if in the end one finds the other. Although, it would seem, what could be the obstacles to this? One half is female, the other half is male, why is it that not every man and every woman is ready to merge in love and happiness? So no, the matter was not at all simple. Androgynes, apparently, were divided in two not evenly, as if by a ruler, but in a special way - "with torn edges", let's say.
That's why men and women suffer - they are looking for exactly their one and only, missing half, when merged with which a harmonious being would reappear, in which both female and male parts are balanced, intertwined like fingers, formed like a pattern in a mosaic .
Many Christian theologians have repeatedly asked the question: why did God divide a person into two sexes (the name itself resembles the word “half”)? Why did God create woman? If you do not touch on physiology, but think only from a spiritual point of view, then the classic answer will be the words from the Bible: “And the Lord God said: It is not good for a man to be alone; Let us make him a helper suitable for him. That is, God wanted to create an object of love for man, so that man would love and be loved. But if we remember that God is love, then a surprising explanation comes up: God divided the primordial man in order to enter into him as love. After all, in order to get inside something, you need to divide it, go inside and put it back together. Man is originally meant to be the temple of God, and he becomes that when he begins to love someone. We love God when we love each other. God becomes a link between the two halves, and this connection of two loving souls is so strong that it is comparable to the connection between a mother and a child: “... a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife; and they shall be one flesh" (). Therefore, the devil also seeks to destroy this spiritual constant through temptations: through the propaganda of fornication, sexual depravity, homosexuality, etc. In fighting God, the devil fights precisely with love within us, trying by any means to pervert, destroy, extinguish it.
A loving person is completely filled with life, that is, he who keeps his spiritual constants thereby protects God inside the vessel of his soul. It is enough to remember how much strength and energy gives a person the blessing of his father and mother, whom he reveres and loves. Or how inspired by love and filled with inspiration a person who has found his soul mate. This joy, vitality, happiness is the action of God within us.
Absolutely all divine commandments relate to love, in the ten commandments of Moses, the first four speak of love for God, the fifth - about love for parents, the remaining five - about love for one's neighbor. But there is one important condition: in order to fulfill the commandments, a person must already be able to love, that is, his heart must have some experience of love. It can be love for a mother, for his soul mate, for his children, etc. Without such experience, a person will not be able to fulfill the commandments, he will not even be able to understand them. It will be like trying to explain to a blind man what it means to see. What does such a person look like? He has a cold relationship with his mother, never had deep feelings for her. He never had a girlfriend, he did not marry. He never had children. That is, such a person simply does not know how to love, he does not understand what it is, spiritual constants are not formed. How can he keep the commandments?
There was such a case: once a young woman came to some old monk and expressed her ardent desire to enter the monastery. The elder began to ask about her life, and she said that she did not like life in the world: she had a strained relationship with her parents, she had never loved any of the men, so she had never been married, she had never had children. She considered all this to be good prerequisites for monasticism and spoke of her great attraction to the monastic life. What did the old man say to her? “Go make peace with your parents and have love for them. Find yourself a beloved man and get married, have children. Learn to love first, and then you will come to a monastery.”
What will happen if you try to fulfill the commandments without having love in your heart? This phenomenon is called hypocrisy. Such people perceive the commandments only by reason, as an instruction of behavior, as a program of actions that they put into any machine. Outwardly, they look completely correct, but something in them is very repulsive, they are usually said about them: there is no love, no cordiality. One well-known politician, answering the question, what qualities, in his opinion, should a politician have, among other qualities, he named the following: the ability to feel someone else's pain. This quality is completely absent from the Pharisee, he will deal with you absolutely correctly from the point of view of the commandments, but he will never put love above the commandments, because he does not understand what it is, his heart does not have such experience. The meaning of all God's commandments is that love is above every commandment. What is love? It is impossible to understand with the mind, it is impossible to explain in words, only the heart knows about it. The Lord, in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, promised that in the next age everyone would know this: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be them. God, and they will be my people. And they will no longer teach one another, brother to brother, and say, “Know the Lord,” for all themselves will know Me, from the least to the greatest, says the Lord, because I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more” () .
8. Life and death
Since love is the source of life, its rejection, repulsion leads to a state that is called death. For the first time in the Bible, this state is indicated in the second chapter of the Book of Genesis in the words of God addressed to Adam: “... but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil do not eat from it, for on the day you eat from it you will die by death” () . Here is how the saint comments on these words: “... just as the separation of the soul from the body is the death of the body, so the separation of God from the soul is the death of the soul. And this is mainly death, the death of the soul. God pointed to her when, giving a commandment in paradise, he said to Adam: on what day you eat from the forbidden tree, you will die by death (). For then his soul died, separating itself from God through transgression; according to the body, he continued to live from that hour onwards until nine hundred and thirty years. But death, which arrived through a crime, not only made the soul obscene and the person under an oath, but also the body, making it painful and many-passionate, finally betrayed to death ... ". So, the true death of a person is spiritual, it is a state of the heart alienated from God. “True death is in the heart, and it is hidden, the inner man dies by it,” says the reverend. So people don't those who know God, are, as it were, the living dead, as indicated by the words of the Savior addressed to the disciple whose father died: “Follow me and let the dead bury their dead” ().
But the death of the heart does not mean its immobilization, emptiness is such a vessel that cannot be empty: "a holy place is never empty." What then fills the heart? Rev. , speaking of a person’s heart, he used an example taken from the Psalter: “This sea is great and spacious: there are gadi, there are no number of them” (). Further in this psalm it is written: “a small animal with great ones: there the ships swim, this serpent, you created him to swear at him” (). Obviously, since the human heart was originally conceived as the receptacle of God, then if there is no love in it, it can only be filled with some perverted likeness of love, some of its anti-analogy. Such false or inward love is pride, which is usually accompanied by lust. Interestingly, this is fully confirmed by modern psychology: sexual desire and the desire to become great are the main subconscious motives human activity. Like false love, pride manifests itself in the form of distorted, false virtues or passions, which sometimes, oddly enough, can have appearance true virtues, which was observed among the gospel Pharisees. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that you are like painted tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of uncleanness; so you, outwardly, seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness ”() - says the Savior.
But we have begun to use the word "lie" so often that it is time to remember her "father" as well. Often people reason like this: I am on my own, and not with God, and not with the devil. But this, as we have already said, is impossible, there is no third option in this choice. In the Gospel the Savior says: “Whoever is not with me is against me; and whoever does not gather with me, he squanders" (). And the holy fathers say: "He who disobeys his will to God, will submit to his rival." The gates of the heart are arranged in such a way that if they are closed for God, then they automatically open for the devil. The Apostle John the Theologian writes: “He who commits sin is from the devil, because the devil sinned first” (). Therefore, the devil is the father of all sinners, but hides this from his servants and, being a liar, pretends to be God. Therefore, the Jews were very indignant when Christ said to them: “Your father is the devil; and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies ”().
The state of the heart that rejects God (love) from itself is painful, therefore it is also called hell. Often people accuse God of creating hell and say, "If God is love, then why does He give sinners to eternal torment." But God did not create hell. In the Gospel of Luke, the Savior says: “The Kingdom of God is within you” (), respectively, we can say that hell is also “inside us”. According to the modern theologian Bishop Callistus of Diocleia, the gates of hell are locked from the inside. Quite right: a person from within closes his heart to God, closes his eyes, plugs his ears. There is even such an apocrypha in which Christ offers Judas to get out of hell, and he refuses. The love of God is perceived by such a person as hellfire. Fortunately, while a person is alive, he has the opportunity to get out of this state, let love into himself and, so to speak, spiritually resurrect. Here is how St. : “What is the resurrection of the soul? Holy repentance, for just as sin is death for the soul, so repentance is resurrection for the soul. After all, about prodigal son when he turned to his father with repentance, it is said: “this son of mine was dead and has come to life” (). While he was away from his father, in a sinful country, he was dead, but when he returned, having repented, he immediately resurrected in soul: “he was dead and came to life.” We said that this resurrection is often repeated with the soul, for when a person sins, he dies in soul, and when he repents, he rises, according to these words: how many times you fall, so many times you rise up, and you will be saved.
“The life of the heart is love, and its death is malice and enmity. The Lord keeps us on earth for this, so that love completely penetrates our hearts: this is the purpose of our existence, ”wrote St. John of Kronstadt. And after a few decades, amazingly beautiful lines of the Soviet poet and composer Vladimir Vysotsky appeared:
I just feel like a ship
Long stay afloat
Before you know that "I love" -
The same that I breathe, or I live!
All this can be concluded in such a way that love is life, and the absence of it is death, which is confirmed by the words of the Apostle John the Theologian: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love brothers; he who does not love his brother abides in death ”().
9. What does it mean to love God?
In the New Testament, God gave people only one single commandment: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another; as I have loved you, so let you also love one another.” Why, one wonders, did the Lord not repeat the Old Testament commandment about love for God? After all, one could say: "I give you a new commandment: that you love God and one another." Is it no longer necessary to love God? The answer to this question is that New Testament brought with him an amazing truth: God is love. What then does it mean to love God? Love love? But this is incomprehensible, this is nonsense. In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ says these words: “... where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (). The depth of the meaning of what the Lord said is often misunderstood. These words mean that God cannot abide in isolation in one person, but abides as an interpersonal connection of souls loving each other, where two or more are gathered in His name, that is, gathered for the sake of love. Love cannot be monohypostatic, it binds loving friend other personality and fills them.
It should be noted that God can only abide precisely between persons, connecting them, that is, He cannot abide between a person and something impersonal, such as some kind of creation, object, idea. Only a person can truly love, and only a person can truly love, because only a person is a God-like eternal substance - the receptacle of God, everything else is temporary, and therefore illusory, not eternal, not true. Therefore, those who put love for some objects, ideas, principles above love for other people act very recklessly. In essence, such a person puts the temporal over the eternal, falsehood over truth, passion over love, the devil over God. Such a person fills the vessel of his heart not with the eternal God, but with an illusory emptiness, non-existence. Other people, other personalities, are therefore the highest value for us, because in them we find God. The Holy Fathers say that the commandment to love God is contained within the commandment to love one's neighbor.
We have already said that from childhood a person develops stable ideas about love - spiritual constants: love for parents, for his spouse, for his children. Based on this fundamental experience of love, a person develops relationships with other people. But the devil also does not sit idly by: through temptations, he tries to impose on a person love not for other people, but for ghosts: for some things, ideas, principles. In essence, this is not love, but passions - a perverted likeness of love. And then who will win whom. Sometimes it is very painful to observe how even among priests and monks, that is, among those people who should be models of love for their neighbors, addiction to certain things, ideas, even commandments is placed above love for people. The one who loves the ghostly risks being left alone in eternity. It is in the Kingdom of Heaven that they rejoice together, but in hell they suffer alone.
According to the teachings of the Church, after bodily death there is no possibility of repentance, but I would like to believe that it still exists. This hope is best expressed in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale called "The Girl Who Stepped on Bread."
“Of course, you heard about the girl who stepped on the bread so as not to get her shoes dirty, you also heard about how badly she had to then. She was a poor, but proud and arrogant girl. In it, as they say, there were bad inclinations. As a baby, she loved to catch flies and pluck their wings; she liked the fact that flies changed from flying insects to crawling insects. She also caught May and dung beetles, put them on pins and put a green leaf or a piece of paper under their legs. The poor insect grabbed the paper with its legs, twisted and twisted, trying to free itself from the pin, and Inge laughed:
- The cockchafer is reading! See how the leaf turns over!
As the years passed, she got worse rather than better; Unfortunately for her, she was very pretty, and although she got snaps, they were not all the way they should be.
- A strong click is needed for this head! her mother used to say. - As a child, you often trampled on my apron, I'm afraid that when you grow up, you will trample my heart!
And so it happened. Inge left and entered the service of noblemen, in a landowner's house. The gentlemen treated her like their own daughter, and in the new outfits Inge seemed to be even prettier, but her arrogance grew and grew. She lived with the owners for a whole year, and now they said to her:
- You need to visit your old people, Inge! Here is white bread for you, take it to them. Then they will rejoice at you!
Inge dressed up in her best dress, put on new shoes, lifted her dress and carefully walked along the road, trying not to get her shoes dirty - well, there’s nothing to reproach her for that. But then the path turned into a swamp; I had to go through the mud. Without hesitation, Inge threw her bread into the mud in order to step on it and cross the puddle without getting her feet wet. But as soon as she stepped on the bread with one foot, and raised the other, intending to step into a dry place, the bread began to sink deeper and deeper into the ground with her - only black bubbles went through the puddle! And the girl ended up in hell - people with inclinations can get there not in a direct way, but in a roundabout way!
The front one went to infinity; look ahead - dizzy, look back - too. And all of it is crowded with exhausted sinners, who were waiting for the doors of mercy to open at any moment. They had to wait a long time! Huge, fat, waddling spiders entwined their legs with a thousand-year-old cobwebs; she squeezed them, as if with tongs, bound them tighter than copper chains. In addition, the souls of sinners were tormented by eternal tormenting anxiety. The miser, for example, was tormented by the fact that he left the key in the lock of his cash drawer, others ... and there will be no end if we start listing the torments and torments of all sinners!
And Inge's mother and everyone up there already knew about her sin, knew that she stepped on bread and fell through the ground. One shepherd saw all this from the hill and told others.
- How you upset your mother, Inge! mother repeated. - Yes, I did not expect another!
She also heard the words of her masters, respectable people, who treated her like a daughter: “She is a great sinner! She did not honor the gifts of the Lord, she trampled them under her feet! The doors of mercy will not soon open for her!”
She also heard the song that people had composed about her, the song "about a arrogant girl who stepped on bread so as not to get her shoes dirty." It was sung throughout the country. And Inge's soul became even rougher, even more bitter. She also heard how her story was told to children, and the little ones called her an atheist.
- She's so ugly! Let him suffer well now! the children said. Only one bad thing Inge heard about herself from children's lips.
But once, tormented by hunger and anger, she again hears her name and her story. It was told to one innocent little girl, and the little girl suddenly burst into tears about the arrogant, vain Inga.
“And will she never come back here, upstairs?” the little one asked.
- Never! - they answered her.
“And if she asks for forgiveness, promises never to do that again?”
- Yes, she does not want to ask for forgiveness!
“Oh, how I wish she would ask for forgiveness!” - said the girl and for a long time could not be consoled. “I would give away my dollhouse if only she was allowed to return to earth!” Poor, poor Inge!
These words reached Inge's heart, and she seemed to feel better: for the first time she found alive soul who said: "Poor Inge!" and did not add a word about her sin. The little innocent girl was crying and begging for her!.. A strange feeling seized Inge's soul; she, it seems, would have cried herself, but she could not, and this was a new torment.
On the ground the years flew like an arrow, but under the ground everything remained the same. Inge heard her name less and less often - on earth they remembered her less and less. But one day a sigh reached her: “Inge! Inge! How you upset me! I always foresaw it!” It was Inge's mother who was dying. She sometimes heard her name from the lips of her old masters. The hostess, however, always expressed herself humbly: “Perhaps we will see you again, Inge! Nobody knows where it will end up!” But Inge knew that her venerable mistress could not get where she was. Slowly, painfully slowly, time crept by.
And now Inge again heard her name and saw two bright stars flash above her: a pair of meek eyes closed on the ground. Many years have passed since the little girl wept inconsolably for "poor Inga"; the little one managed to grow up, grow old, and was recalled by the Lord God to herself. At the last minute, when memories of a lifetime flare up in my soul, the dying woman and her bitter tears for Inga were remembered, so vividly that she involuntarily exclaimed: “Lord, maybe I, like Inge, without knowing it, trampled on feet Your all-good gifts, maybe my soul was infected with arrogance, and only Your mercy did not let me fall lower, but supported me! Do not leave me in my last hour!”
And the eyes of the dying woman were closed, but the eyes of her soul were opened, and since Inge was her last thought, she saw with her spiritual gaze what was hidden from the earthly - she saw how low Inge had fallen. At this sight, the pious soul burst into tears and appeared before the throne of the Heavenly King, weeping and praying for the sinful soul as sincerely as she had cried as a child. These sobs and prayers echoed in the empty shell that contained the tormented soul, and Inge's soul seemed to be reborn from this unexpected love for her. God's Angel wept for her! What did she do to deserve this? The tormented soul looked back at her whole life, at everything she had done, and burst into tears that Inge had never known. Self-pity filled her: it seemed to her that the doors of mercy would remain locked for her forever and ever! And as soon as she realized this with regret, a ray of light penetrated the underground abyss, stronger than the sun, which melts the snowman made in the yard by the boys, and faster than a snowflake melts on the warm lips of a child, the petrified shell of Inge melted. A small bird like lightning soared from the depths to freedom.
The winter was severe, the waters were bound by thick ice, hard times came for the birds and animals of the forest. A little bird flew over the road, looking for and finding grains in the snow furrows made by the sleigh, and crumbs of bread near the horse-feeding stations; but she herself always ate only one grain, one crumb, and then called other hungry little sparrows to feed. She also flew to the cities, looked around and, seeing pieces of bread crumbled from the window with a merciful hand, she also ate only one, and gave the rest to others. During the winter, the bird collected and distributed so many bread crumbs that all of them together weighed as much as the bread that Inge stepped on so as not to stain her shoes. And when the last crumb was found and given away, the gray wings of the bird turned into white and blossomed widely.
- There is a sea swallow flying! - said the children, seeing a white bird. The bird then dived into the waves, then soared towards the sun's rays and suddenly disappeared in this radiance. No one saw where she went.
She flew off into the sun! the children said.
Love is born in response to love. Love is eternal, and it loves forever and waits forever for each of us.
10. Cross
The most common question people ask when trying to refute the claim that God is love is: if God is love, why is there evil in the world? To answer this question, we first need to slightly correct it: only sin can be called evil, which is an incorrect realization of freedom, an erroneous choice. Therefore, asking the question: why does evil exist is the same as asking the question: why does freedom exist? God gave man formal freedom, which is the freedom to choose between good and evil, but it does not exist forever. At the end of the world, the very possibility of such a choice will be abolished and, accordingly, evil or sin will be destroyed, while formal freedom will be replaced by moral freedom - freedom from sin. But since sin is the cause of sorrows and suffering, people often include them in the concept of evil, which is erroneous: suffering is not a sin. Therefore, it would be more correct to ask this question this way: if God is love, then why does He allow suffering? Moreover, both the perpetrators of sin and completely innocent people suffer, the latter even more often and stronger, and these sufferings are sometimes very absurd and cruel.
In order to figuratively represent the power of this question, it is necessary to recall what happened at the time of the Nativity of Christ. Here is how solemnly describes the idyll of the Nativity of St. : “We now see a great and wonderful mystery, brethren. Shepherds with joyful exclamations are messengers to the sons of men, not talking with their flocks on the hills of the field and not playing with the sheep in the field, but in the city of David's Bethlehem they sing spiritual songs. Angels sing in the highest, Archangels sing hymns; the heavenly Cherubim and Seraphim sing praises to the glory of God: “holy, holy, holy…” All together make a joyful feast, seeing God on earth and man ascending to heaven. Those who are below by Divine Providence are raised to the heights, those who are above, by the love of God for people, bow down to those who are below, for the Highest, in His humility, “lift up the humble.” On this day of great celebration, Bethlehem becomes like the sky, instead of shining stars, it receives Angels singing glory, and instead of visible sun- the boundless and immeasurable Sun of Truth, which creates everything that exists. What happened after some time? One of the most terrible crimes in the history of mankind is the beating of the innocent children of Bethlehem, absolutely brutal in its senselessness and cruelty. And such cases of absurd and cruel suffering, unfortunately, take place to this day. In ancient Christianity, the unwillingness to come to terms with the idea that God allows such suffering was expressed in the emergence of dualistic heresies that proclaimed evil as an independent, self-propelling force, independent of the will of God. But Christianity rejected this teaching and explains suffering as an inevitable consequence of sin allowed by God, nevertheless serving for the salvation of man. How can it be?
First of all, it must be said that God as love was revealed to man precisely in suffering for him, and in suffering very cruel: death on the cross is one of the most painful executions in the history of mankind. Moreover, He Himself said that suffering for loved ones is the highest manifestation of love: “There is no greater love than if someone lays down his life for his friends” (). If we carefully consider any virtue, we will see that every manifestation of love involves some kind of sacrifice. You need to sacrifice something of your own: property, time, strength, health, life. And every sacrifice contains some kind of suffering, and the greater the sacrifice, the greater the suffering. This explains why some people hate God. If we had such a God who commanded only to take, then everyone would be believers. So, suffering for loved ones is a manifestation of love.
But this way, probably, you can talk only about the suffering of the free and purposeful. What to do with those sufferings that are committed involuntarily and not for the sake of someone? The patristic tradition says that any suffering cleanses sin, expiates sin, delivers from sin, and so on. But if we remember that sin is the absence of love in the heart, then how can it be cleansed? Only love. Here it is necessary to say once again about what we have already said, that the more love is manifested, the more it seeks to enter the heart of a person and fill it. Any sacrifice, even involuntarily and not for the sake of someone, is accepted by God as a sacrifice of love, and He rushes into the heart of a person, as if wishing to comfort and pity the suffering. “We are not so much looking for love as God is looking for us to become able to receive it and accept it,” writes St. . No suffering is meaningless for God. The more suffering, the more persistent and stronger love knocking on the door of the heart. “The deeper the sorrow, the closer God is,” say the holy fathers. And often it is under such pressure that a person opens these doors. When did the prudent thief repent? At the peak of suffering. When did the prodigal son repent? Also at the peak of suffering. At that moment, love entered their hearts, and they "came to their senses", came to their senses.
Well, then it turns out that by allowing us to suffer, God makes us love? Far from it. Even with severe suffering, a person is free to leave the doors of his heart closed and not let love in. In this regard, the holy fathers compare all of humanity with two thieves crucified next to the Savior: both of them suffered, but one opened his heart to God, and the other left it closed. By allowing us to suffer, God teaches us to love, in other words: by taking something away from us, God teaches us to give, to sacrifice. But why such a cruel way? For eternity, this is extremely important. If we here, in earthly life, do not acquire at least the minimum experience of self-sacrifice, then in eternity, where only love exists, our existence will be simply unbearable. Therefore, it is possible that bodily death exists to give a person the experience of complete self-sacrifice.
But then it turns out that in eternity, where only love exists, there is also endless suffering? No. Suffering is temporary, and continues as long as a person has something to give, that is, as long as a person still has something of his own that he has not yet sacrificed. When a person gives everything he has for the sake of love, then love fills him completely and turns in him into a source of inexhaustible bliss. This blessedness was witnessed by many Christian martyrs at the peak of their suffering. Therefore, it is very important to be able to sacrifice everything even now, during a temporary life, so that nothing of one’s own remains inside, not given away for the sake of God, so that this particle of the ghostly “one’s own”, not sacrificed for the sake of love, does not become in eternity the cause of eternal sorrow.
It was impossible to immediately create a person who loves, love still needs to be let into the heart, to grow it in it, in other words, love needs to be learned. The totality of all sorrows and sufferings that God allows a person during his earthly life to teach him self-sacrifice is called the cross. This is some cumulative sacrifice that a person needs to make. It is impossible to know love without a cross, therefore it is necessary for absolutely everyone, it was also necessary for the primordial Adam: “... whoever does not carry his cross and follows Me cannot be My disciple” ().
Evil does not exist on its own, but is only a state of beings who reject God. One can often come across such an opinion that evil beings will also be saved and will be rewarded by God in some special way for the Last Judgment for the fact that they did sorrow and attack the righteous, thus helping them to be saved. To this we can only say that the crucifiers can be saved only if they crucify themselves. To know God (love) is possible only by carrying the cross, and there are no other ways. So, love appears on the cross and is known only through the cross, in other words, God appears on the cross and is known only through the cross. God is love, and love is the cross.
11. Good and Evil
Mankind throughout its history is haunted by the idea that the existence of good requires the existence of evil. This idea found various expressions in many religious teachings and philosophical concepts even to the extent that good and evil were proclaimed to be different manifestations of the same essence. In M. Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, Woland says to Levi Matthew: “Would you be so kind to think about the question: what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it ? . The answer to this question is given by the Savior Himself in the Gospel of Matthew: “Therefore, as they gather tares and burn them with fire, so it will be at the end of this age: the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather from His Kingdom all the stumbling blocks and those who do iniquity, and cast them into the furnace fiery; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father" (). That is, the time will come when evil will disappear, and good at the same time will feel quite good.
But there is also the idea that without the knowledge of evil, the knowledge of good is impossible. After all, the tree itself, from which Adam ate, was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that is, it was supposed, as it were, that the knowledge of one without the other is impossible. Often this idea is even expressed in such a way that it is impossible to achieve holiness without first having sinned, that is, “if you don’t sin, you won’t repent.” Usually, many repentant great sinners are remembered. Such a view cannot be recognized as correct, if we remember that the greatest saints, such as John the Baptist or John the Evangelist, practically did not have any personal sins.
If we consider love as good, and sin (denial of love) as evil, then we can guess that good does not enter the heart of a person before it (the heart) is tempted by evil and does not reject it from itself. It is impossible to become perfect in love without knowing and overcoming those forces that hinder it. So the potter will not fill the vessel with something good until he has tested it for strength and impeccability. “Woe to the world from temptations, for temptations must come ...” (). “Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because, having been tested, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord promised to those who love Him” () - says St. the Apostle James, as well as many holy fathers, pointed to the need for temptations as trials. Evil, tempting the heart of man, imposes on him love for himself, denying the cross. So the apostle Peter, instructed by the devil, persuaded the Savior to be merciful to himself and not to ascend to the cross. By an act of free will, rejecting evil from himself, a person rises to the cross of self-sacrifice and gives a place in his heart to true love.
The entire 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke tells us what value a repentant sinner has before God: “All publicans and sinners drew near to Him to listen to Him. But the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying: He receives sinners and eats with them. But He spoke to them the following parable: Which of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? And having found it, he will take it on his shoulders with joy and, having come home, he will call his friends and neighbors and say to them: rejoice with me: I found my lost sheep. I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous who have no need of repentance. Or what woman, having ten drachmas, if she loses one drachma, does not light a candle and sweep the room and search carefully until she finds it, and when she finds it, she will call her friends and neighbors and say: rejoice with me: I have found the lost drachma. So, I tell you, there is joy among the angels of God and over one sinner who repents ”(). And then the Lord tells the famous parable of the prodigal son.
Very many, both Christians and non-Christians, have repeatedly asked themselves the question: why does God love sinners more than the righteous? Why is one lost sheep more valuable than 99 not lost ones? Why is a lost drachma more valuable than 9 not lost? Why, in this famous parable, does the father love the younger son more than the eldest? After all, this is undoubted - he is given the best clothes and a ring, for his sake a well-fed calf is slaughtered, because of him joy and jubilation. Can we say that the reason for God's love for sinners is simply that they, like the prodigal son, "were lost and are found"? Or, having been tempted and overcoming it, have they acquired some very valuable experience, some very valuable knowledge?
The Monk Father Seraphim in his “Spiritual Instructions to Monks and Laity” writes: “Before reasoning about good and evil, a person is not able to shepherd verbal sheep, but perhaps dumb ones, because without the knowledge of good and evil we cannot comprehend the actions of the evil one.” In spiritual life, the same universal principle of knowledge, formulated by Friedrich Nietzsche, operates as everywhere: everything is known in comparison. Only by comparing one with the other can we know the value of both. If you want to know white, you need to know black. If you want to know the truth, you need to know the lie. If you want to know the light, you need to know the darkness. If you want to know good, you must know evil. It is terrible to say: if you want to know God, you need to know the devil. We learn the value of something when we lose it. It is not for nothing that it is said: “The joy of salvation gained is available only to those who perished.” It turns out that in Paradise, Adam both knew God and did not know Him, because there was no alternative, there was nothing to compare with. This is the meaning of the existence of temptations and evil in general, it is necessary for the knowledge of good. And from this it clearly follows that evil is a temporary phenomenon - until the whole good is known. Free will itself, which is completely reduced to the freedom to choose between good and evil, suggests that before choosing, you need to know, so to speak, taste, both.
Strange, if temptation is good, then one might think that evil does not exist in this world at all. After all, one cannot call evil that which serves good, just as one cannot consider a method of teaching evil, tutorial. What then is evil? The Holy Fathers say that good and evil are personal phenomena. To choose between good and evil, to perceive one or the other into oneself, to carry it to others - all this is characteristic only of a person. Only a person can be good or evil, since this is a personal position - to love or not to love.
In the famous parable of the Savior about the prodigal son, few people pay attention to the fact that it also contains the eldest son, who did not leave his father and who, upon the return of his younger brother, became angry and condemned him, and even his father himself. Why does the Savior introduce this image? To show that the younger son, who rejected his father, gained more love for him. Knowing evil and tearing it away from himself with repentance, he knew good more and became higher in love than his older brother, who gained nothing in love. So, if the knowledge of good is impossible without the knowledge of evil, then why did God warn Adam against eating from the forbidden tree? Because there is a chance to stay in evil and not return. Also, probably, the father in the gospel parable dissuaded his youngest son from leaving.
From the fact that the forbidden tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it can be assumed that the primordial Adam did not know either of them experimentally. That is, he was, as it were, an empty vessel, not filled with either love (God) or anti-love (the devil). This state is not available to us, so Christians are often outraged by why God did not give each person the opportunity to make an initial choice, because we are already born with original sin, that is, in the power of evil. The thing is that without being tempted by evil and without accepting the cross, that is, without learning self-sacrifice, it is impossible to make a positive choice. The thought arises that the fall of the ancestors was planned. But this is not quite the right word, rather it was predictable. If Adam had not moved away from God, he would have remained in the state of the eldest son, who, although he was outwardly with his father, was inwardly far removed from him, not having him in his heart. It turns out that evil exists until good is known. When good is fully known, evil will be abolished and "God will be all in all" (). Evil is not an unfortunate "side effect" of freedom, but serves to test this freedom as long as this test is necessary.
12. Conclusion
The process of knowing God cannot go on forever. In other words, there will come a moment when a person will still be removed from the cross, hence the expression: “they don’t come down from the cross - they are removed from it.” The results will be summed up, in the Holy Scriptures this is called judgment. For each person, it comes after bodily death - this is the so-called private judgment, after which, however, there is still an opportunity to change something in the afterlife of a person. There will be a general judgment, after which nothing can be changed. It is not difficult to guess that both of these judgments will be only about love.
Often Christians discuss whether the unbaptized will be saved. You can again recall the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov: “Fasting, and vigil, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake are means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God.” The same can be said about Christian religion in general, it is a means to acquiring God in the heart. There are more salvific means, there are less salvific ones, there are not salvific ones at all, but this does not mean that God cannot enter into a person's heart in some other way. The Apostle Peter says to Cornelius the centurion: “Truly I know that God is not partial, but in every nation whoever fears Him and does what is right is pleasing to Him” (). And the apostle Paul writes: “... it is not the hearers of the law that are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified, for when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, not having the law, they are their own law: they show that the work of the law it is written in their hearts, as evidenced by their conscience and their thoughts, now accusing, now justifying one another ”(). It seems possible that many unbaptized people will be called by the Lord to the Kingdom of Heaven, and when they say to Him: “Lord, we never knew You,” He will answer: “But I know you, I was in your heart when you created good". We must remember that the Lord baptizes us not only with water, but also with the Holy Spirit. Although trying to be saved outside the Orthodox Church is like going to the intended goal not along a straight well-groomed road, but making your way through forests and swamps, or it’s like sailing on a board, and not on a well-arranged ship.
When the holy Apostle John the Theologian was already very old, he only did what he repeated to his disciples: “Brethren, love one another!” Since by that time he was the last of those who personally communicated with the Savior, the disciples somehow began to ask him: “Teacher, tell us about the Lord. What did he say? The apostle stood up and solemnly said: “The Lord said: love one another!” The disciples were offended: “Abba! We have heard this many times before. But didn't the Lord say anything more? The apostle thought for a moment and answered: “Why? He spoke, but doing this alone is enough for salvation.
M .: Edition of the Sretensky Monastery, 2004. Volume 5. P. 250. Bulgakov M.A. "The Master and Margarita".
Seraphim of Sarov, St. "Spiritual Instructions to Monks and Laity".
Motovilov N.A. "Conversation Reverend Seraphim about the purpose of the Christian life.
So, it means that in order to receive eternal life, you need to diligently fulfill the two main commandments: to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. But since the whole law consists in these two commandments, it is necessary to explain them so that we know well what love for God and neighbor consists in? So with God's help Let's start with the explanation.
loveљ the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, i.e. with all your being, with all your strength, surrender yourself to God, devote yourself entirely to Him without any lack, do not divide yourself between God and the world; do not live partly only for God and His law, and partly for the world, for many-passionate flesh, for sin and the devil, but devote yourself entirely to God, be all of God, all holy, in all your life. Following the example of the Holy One who called you(God) and be holy yourselves in all your deeds, says the holy Apostle Peter (1 Peter 1:15).
Let's explain this commandment with examples. Suppose you are praying to God. If you love God with all your heart, then you will always pray to Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, you will never be distracted, lazy, careless, cold in prayer; during prayer you will not give place in your heart to any worldly worries and cares, you will put aside all worldly cares, you will cast all sorrow on the Lord, for He cares for you, as the apostle says. Try to comprehend prayer, the service of God completely, in all depth. If you love God with all your soul, then you will sincerely repent to God of your sins, you will bring deep repentance to Him every day, for every day you sin a lot. You will repent, that is, condemn yourself for sins with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind; you will rebuke yourself with all merciless severity, with all sincerity; you will bring to God a full confession, a sacrifice of a complete burnt offering of sins, so that not a single sin remains unrepentant, unmourned.
Thus, to love God with all your heart means to love with all your heart and with all your strength His truth, His law, and to hate with all your heart every unrighteousness, every sin; with all my heart and all my strength to fulfill the truth, to do good, and with all my heart, with all my strength to move away from evil, that is, all sin, not to give place in the heart to any sin for one minute, not for one moment, that is, not to agree to him, not to sympathize with him, not to put up with him, but constantly, forever at enmity with sin, to fight with him and, thus, to be a brave and victorious warrior of Christ God.
Or let's take another example: suppose that you are persecuted for piety, for truth, for virtue; if you love God, then you will not deviate for a moment from piety, from truth, from virtue, even if this devotion to truth entails the loss of any benefits; since truth itself, or fidelity to God and His righteousness, is the greatest benefit for us, and God can reward faithfulness to His righteousness a hundredfold both in this and in the next age. An example of this is the righteous Joseph, the son of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob, and many righteous people in the New Testament. So, to love God with all your heart means to fight according to God, according to His righteousness, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. Thus did the holy fathers and holy martyrs fight according to God, according to His righteousness, especially in the struggle against heresies and schisms. This is jealousy for God. To love God with all your heart means to direct all people with all your might to God, to His love, to His glorification, to His eternal kingdom, so that everyone would know Him, love Him, and glorify Him. This is also zeal for God!
Having explained the first commandment as best we can, let us now explain the second: Love your neighbor as yourself. What does it mean to love your neighbor, that is, every person, as yourself? It means to honor another as you wish to be honored, not to consider anyone a stranger, but yours, your brother, your member, but a Christian and a member of Christ; consider his good, his salvation as your good, your salvation; rejoice at his well-being as if it were your own, grieve over his misfortune as if it were your own; try to deliver him from misfortune, misfortune, poverty, sin in the same way that I would try about my own deliverance. Rejoice with those who rejoice, cry with those who weep, - says the apostle (Rom. 12:1) . We must bear the infirmities of the weak, not to please ourselves; let everyone please your neighbor for good to creation(Rom. 15:1-2). Pray for each other that you will be healed(James 5:16).
To love one's neighbor as oneself means to respect him as oneself, if, however, he is worthy of it; not to think of him unworthily, lowly, for no reason on his part, not to have any evil against him; not to envy him, but always to be benevolent, to condescend to his shortcomings, weaknesses, to cover his sins with love, as we wish them to condescend to our shortcomings. Tolerate each other with love, says the apostle (Eph. 4:2), not repaying evil for evil, or vexation for vexation(1 Peter 3:9). Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you.(Matthew 5:44). If your enemy is hungry, eat him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink, - says the Old Testament Scripture (Prov. 25:22; Rom. 12:20).
To love one's neighbor as oneself means to pray for the living and the dead, relatives and non-relatives, acquaintances and strangers, for friends and enemies, as well as for oneself, and wishing them as much good, the salvation of the soul, as oneself. This is what the Holy Church teaches in her daily prayers.
To love your neighbor as yourself means to love everyone without partiality, regardless of whether he is poor or rich, good-looking or not, old or young, noble or simple, healthy or sick; useful to us or not, a friend or an enemy, because it’s all the same God’s, everything is in the image of God, everyone is a child of God, members of Christ (if Orthodox Christians), all our members, for we are all one body, one spirit(Eph. 4:4), there is one Head for all - Christ God. Thus let us understand and thus try to fulfill the two main commandments of the law of God - and we will inherit eternal life by the grace of Christ God. Amen.
22 / 11 / 2003
