In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
"Commandment I give you a new one let you love one another as I have loved you,” said the Lord to his disciples. What is true Christian love? How can we learn such love? The most important example of this for us is our Lord Jesus Christ, Who so loved the world that He died on the Cross for our sins. He spread out his arms on the Cross, as if embracing all humanity. Brothers and sisters, now let's see what kind of love you and I have. How we treat our neighbors when we are asked for help. You and I are accustomed to doing good only to those who do the same to us. But the Lord says in the Gospel: “If you do good to those who do it to you, what good will it do? the pagans do the same.” Our love must be sacrificial. After all, if we love someone, then for his sake we are ready to do anything. So the Lord says: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Achieving such love is not easy, but if we start small, we can gradually become better.
The first thing we must accustom ourselves to is forgiveness of offenses. Venerable Seraphim Sarovsky says about this: “forgive your offenders, even if your heart resists it.” Everyone needs to forgive, regardless of the offense. Because all this is sent to us from the Lord, so that while enduring insults we become better. The forgiveness of our sins depends on this. Only those who are not forgiven - we do not forgive the judgment.
First of all, you and I must reconcile with all our family and friends, and in the future try not to upset each other. Brothers and sisters, we are all sinners and weak, so how can we demand blameless behavior from others if we can be even worse? First of all, we need to start correcting ourselves, and set an example of patience and humility. The Apostle says: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” And if we try to fulfill this law, then the Lord will not abandon us with His Grace.
Next, brothers and sisters, the next step in the manifestation of our love is almsgiving. By giving alms to the poor and needy, you and I not only show our love, but also accumulate treasure for ourselves in Heaven. The Holy Gospel says that the Last Judgment The Lord will set up the righteous right side, and sinners on the left. And he will say to the righteous, “Come, blessing of My Father, and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, because I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was hungry and you fed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick, in prison and you visited Me.” Me. Then the righteous will ask: Lord, when did we see You sick, naked or in need and help You? Then He will answer them: everything you have done little brothers Mine, then you did it to Me.” And the sinner will say: “Depart from Me, cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angel. Because I was hungry and you did not feed Me, I was thirsty and you did not give Me something to drink, I was sick and in prison and you did not serve Me. Then sinners will ask: Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty, sick, in prison, and did not serve You? Then the Lord will say to them, “What you did not do to the least of My brothers, you did not do to Me.”
Dear brothers and sisters, we see what a terrible fate awaits those people who did not give alms and did not help each other. Now let's remember how often we give alms, or visit sick people to support them, at least morally? In our difficult times, everyone needs support, but unfortunately, year after year, day after day, love becomes more and more scarce, and where there is no love, there is no Lord. The Holy Fathers tell us: “hurry to do good, because time is short.” Indeed, our life is very short, so we need to make every effort to fulfill the commandment of love. And if you and I give alms from the bottom of our hearts, help those in need, forgive our offenders, then we will undoubtedly be honored to hear from the Lord the words: “Come, O blessing of My Father, and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Amen!
Question: What is love in every sense of the word?
Answer: Love is the essence of God. "God is love". 1 John 4:8;
Love is a gift from God to man, as a reflection of His image. “He who does not love has not known God.” 1 John 4:8;
The Apostle Paul defines the love of God: “Above all, put on love, which is totality of perfection. Col. 3:14;
There is no sufficient definition in human language that could express the entire essence of love. The Apostle Paul writes a letter to Ephesus and says: “So that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to understand the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph.3:18,19;
By studying Scripture we can understand some of the elements of love. At the creation of the world: “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Gen.2:7; God's love was manifested in the fact that He gave a part of Himself. He endowed man with himself and his qualities. In the future, no matter how a person’s life develops, the Lord reveals the essence of love in the words “with eternal love I have loved you and therefore have extended favor to you.” Jer.31:3; Then the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians expresses: “Love never fails” 1 Cor. 13:8; Before these words, the Apostle Paul gives a detailed description of love. In numerous “love is not” is clearly visible the essence of love is to give, to serve,
Here are a couple more texts about God's love.
“For God so loved the world that gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him didn't die, but had eternal life." John 3:16;
“God’s love for us was revealed in that God sent into the world of His only begotten Son, so that we got a life through him". 1 John 4:9;
In this way we can express two facets of inexpressible love.
First. Love gives, serves, giving itself, its best. The highest expression of love is sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13;
Second face. Love accepts, serves, accepting another, accepting the gift of another.
In the relationship between God and man, to the greatest extent, God is love-giving, man is love-receiving. However, accepting love is also inherent in God. He accepts us, He accepts our prayers, He accepts our praise and worship, He accepts our love!
Some general provisions. Personality is determined by the presence of intelligence, emotions, and will.
Love, as the Lord defines it, includes all three elements of personality. "Teacher! What is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him: Love the Lord your God with all my heart yours and with all my soul yours and everyone's by your understanding“This is the first and greatest commandment”; Matthew 22:36-38;
Love is the fruit of reason, emotions, and will. The whole trinitarian essence of the personality in harmony expresses love in the service of giving, and equally, expresses love in the service of receiving. I would like to especially emphasize that love is the harmonious service of all three elements of personality.
However, most often the word love is used to describe a bright, exciting feeling, a passion that sometimes arises unconsciously both in relation to people and in relation to objects, to position, to career, to fame, to awards, etc.
For example, love is called sexual relations. However, the attraction of the flesh is not yet love. Here's an example: Amnon fell in love with his sister Tamar. Beautiful. I got so carried away that I lost peace. Everyone already sees it. His friend Jonadab comes to him: “Why are you growing so thin every day, son of kings, won’t you tell me? And Amnon said to him, “Tamar, the sister of Absalom my brother, I love.” Jonadab taught him how to get Tamar to come to him. He committed violence. And this is the result: “Then Amnon hated her with the greatest hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was stronger than love what he had for her." 2 Samuel 13:14,15; Largest quantity human tragedies has at its root sexual desire. The well-known expression “look for a woman” accurately reflects the nature of all troubles, tragedies and crimes. In Russia, fourteen thousand women a year are killed by their husbands. This is the finale of love, with promises and vows.
In the same series of strong hobbies, which, by the way, are also called love, are alcoholism, drug addiction, fornication, and kleptomania. This is not love. This is the lust of the flesh. Extreme excitement passion paralyzes the mind and will. A person does something that he would never do in a state of calm reflection.
Here's an example. During the capture of Jericho, Joshua announced that the city was under a spell and nothing could be taken from it. But it happened, and the people began to suffer defeat. Jesus finds the one who disobeyed. Why did you do this: “And Achan answered Joshua, saying, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and have done this and that: between the spoils saw I have one fine robe from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and an ingot of gold weighing fifty shekels; that's for me loved it and I took This". Joshua 7:20,21;
Love is an act of will, based on serious reflection, providing a feeling of satisfaction, bringing pleasure, pleasure.
Let's look at love as it is prescribed by God and how it manifests itself in our lives.
Love the Lord Thy God. This is the love that makes a person human.
This includes reverence for God, admiration for God, worship of God, glorification of God, obedience to God. We have already noted that this injunction obliges a person to love with his mind, heart and will. Love for God is expressed by fulfilling His commandments. His commandment is to till the land. Caring attitude towards nature, protection environment, this is not a whim of the green ones, this is God’s order. An even more caring attitude towards all living things around us. After all, this is all the creation of God, His love is in everything. And of course the highest phase of love, attitude towards people. “Whoever says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And we have this commandment from Him, that loving God he loved his brother too.” 1 John 4:20,21"
Self-love.
Self-love is natural. Self-love is a reflection of the likeness of God in man. It is a common practice, including in Christianity, to hide self-love, contrary to Scripture. Moreover, there is a position of “especially pious Pharisees” who categorically object to self-love. They say it's immodest. Some especially gifted theologians say that they terrible sinners, disgusting, dead in sins, that there is nothing good in them, they are simply dirtier than dirt and more sinful than sin. But all this is nothing more than pride. I like Fazil Iskander, who once said, answering the question: “What is modesty?”: “Very patient pride”! You can talk about yourself as much as you want, how scary, dirty, sinful, vile you are. But when your neighbor tells you about this, you will explode in anger and sue for insult. At the same time, when we pedal our carnal “virtues”, convincing ourselves and our neighbors that we are wicked, the likes of which the world has never seen, and that loving ourselves is a sin, we are lying to the truth. The Lord, love, loved us and transformed us and gave us everything new! Maybe the main thing in self-love is self-acceptance. Once Adam, hearing the steps of the Lord in paradise, was afraid and hid. "Adam! why did you hide"? - the Lord asks him. “I was afraid because I was naked and hid myself.” We carry this feeling of shame, this feeling of nakedness, within ourselves, and only the love of God clothes us in His holiness, removes fear, returns us to the presence of God.
Love for one's neighbor.
Here are the words of Jesus Christ: “Teacher! What is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second one is similar to it: love your neighbor, like yourself; On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40; In the same series are His words: “And as you want people to do to you, do so to them.” Luke 6:31;
To love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your will, means to accept all His gifts, all the qualities He has given, all His instructions. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15; Loving God means putting your heart, your mind, your will at His disposal. This simultaneously means that my brain is filled with knowledge from Him, my feelings are formed by Him, and my will has disappeared into His will. In such a state, love for God is at the same time love for oneself; perhaps it would be correct to say, love for God in oneself. This is the starting point that allows us to talk about love in the biblical sense. If this reverent merging with the Father does not exist, then the most modest modesty is nothing more than pride. Out of love for ourselves, we ask God for forgiveness, we ask for protection from the evil one, from illnesses, falls, we ask for His mercy for every day. Out of love for ourselves, we build houses for ourselves, cook better food, we buy the best clothes. Out of love for ourselves, we do not allow offense, we are upset when we are deceived, we suffer when we are betrayed, we are ashamed when we make mistakes, we put on masks so that those around us do not know our suffering. Self-love helps us understand the pain of our neighbors, the needs of our neighbors, the joys and sorrows of our neighbors. That is why the Lord commands love your neighbor as yourself! This is not the pride of a self-righteous Pharisee, this is an acceptance of God's love, His gift of forgiveness, His gift of life and all blessings.
Self-love is not an instinct, not a thirst for pleasure, not a passion. First of all, a clear, God-enlightened mind. We have the mind of Christ! Feelings subordinated to reason, accustomed by skill to distinguish between good and evil. A will that submits to God's will, a will that restrains the impulses of feelings, forces the mind to measure seven times and only then, cut once. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me! “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him.”
And only by building a relationship with God in this way, and by realizing the values of His love in His love, can we love our neighbor. I repeat: love presupposes harmony of feelings, mind and will.
Marital love.
Marital love- the most sublime, most complex, and most fruitful love. Marital love most clearly characterizes God's Love. In marital love, the fulfillment of God's command to “be fruitful and multiply.” In marital love there is giving to each other. Not just once, in a fit of feeling, not only when there is wealth and health, but giving forever, in any circumstances, in any weather. “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Song 2:16;
The Apostle Paul writes: “Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies: “He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and warms it, just as the Lord does the Church.” Eph.5:28,29; As you can see, God's Word quite naturally draws on self-love to demonstrate the value and importance of loving one's spouse.
Soul unity. Marital love is the love of a man and a woman who unite into one for life together. Marital love presupposes spiritual unity, in which both spouses devote their spiritual qualities to serving each other. “Why are you discouraged, my soul? Why are you embarrassed about me? - This sigh is familiar to everyone. Love in marriage presupposes such mutual trust that any experience of one, any pain of one, will become the experience of both, and will receive healing in love. Mental wounds, possible fears, doubts, suspicions bring tension into the relationship between spouses, destroying love. Loneliness is not characteristic of humans, neither man nor woman. A person needs communication, it is not good for a person to be alone! Marital love satisfies these needs of the soul. This is achieved by expressing every kind of attention from one to the other, care, pleasure, and mutual admiration for each other. “Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved, you are beautiful! your eyes are dove. Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved, and amiable! Song 1:14,15;
Spiritual unity. This is the side of love in which spouses are united in one spirit, and worship one God, accept His word, do His will. Spouses care about each other's spiritual condition, are sensitive to each other's spiritual needs, and create spiritual unity in common worship, in joint prayer, and in joint study of Scripture. Idolatry is the greatest temptation that destroys spiritual unity in marriage, because it destroys the relationship with God. Creating spiritual unity requires tension of will, subduing of emotions, and enlightenment of the mind with the word of God. If love is not manifested in spiritual giving of oneself to each other, spiritual unity will fail. Equally, the absence of spiritual unity, love of giving, love of service will destroy the love of spiritual service.
Intimate relationships. “The husband show his wife due favor; likewise is a wife to her husband. The wife has no power over her body, but the husband does; Likewise, the husband has no power over his body, but the wife does. Do not deviate from each other, except by agreement, for a while, to practice fasting and prayer, and then be together again, so that Satan does not tempt you with your intemperance.” 1 Cor.7:3-5; As you can see, even in intimate relationships In marital love, feelings, reason and will harmoniously participate. Satisfaction of carnal desire can become lust even in marriage. Generally accepted ideas about love as sex have emasculated all the essential duties of one towards the other that are characteristic specifically of love. Sexual intercourse itself is a mechanical process associated with pleasure, even with the possible conception of a child. All living beings perform sexual intercourse. And the ability to continue life is given by God to all living beings on earth. But love is much more than sex, and therefore, speaking about love in marriage, about intimate relationships in marriage, I must say that spouses can receive real pleasure only if their spiritual relationship is sacred. If their spiritual unity is harmonious, pure, without idols. Then their unity, mental and spiritual, will naturally, pure, holy, also be in intimate unity. Then intimacy will not be using the spouse for pleasure, but will be serving the spouse, giving oneself to the spouse.
In marital love it is extremely important to maintain harmony. Both spouses are responsible for this, but the man to a greater extent, for according to Scripture he is the head of the wife. A man is commanded to love his wife as Christ loved the church. This means a man with a cool head provides his wife, and therefore himself, with spiritual peace and order. This means that the husband subordinates his feelings, his passion, thirsting for pleasure, with his will, so that his wife receives pleasure. This means that the husband loves his wife, gives himself to her, serves her.
Love for children.
Parental love seems natural, no matter how demanding. But this is a misleading idea. Most often, such love is expressed in feeding, buying toys, clothes, and providing for life’s needs. But God's standards of love require from parents the most serious attention, dedication, service to children, in the creation of their spirit, soul and body. Love shapes the character of children and obliges parents to invest in them the spirit of family, just as the Lord invested in man the spirit of truth. Shaping their minds. Shaping their will. Parental love understands education as a conscious, purposeful, increasing feeding of spiritual food. Love for children includes passing on knowledge about God. Teaching them God's Law, God's love. Love for the church. Love for parents. Educational means are varied. These are lessons, and an example of parental life, and reading the Bible, and games, entertainment, encouragement and even punishment. But, I repeat, the love of parents is an intense, sacrificial giving of themselves to their children. Will, reason, feelings create a harmonious, integral personality. Such a harmonious, integral personality, from the earliest times, learns not only to receive parental love, but also learns to give. Parents have a responsibility to teach their children to love their parents. Loving brothers and sisters. Teach children to give, the best thing is to give. “Instruct a young man at the beginning of his path; he will not turn away from it when he is old.” Proverbs 22:6;
Love for brothers. Love the brotherhood.
First of all, love for brotherhood is expressed in love for the local church. In the voluntary offering of tithes. To participate in the life of the community, in the maintenance of the house of prayer, in prayerful communication, in helping those in need, in visiting the sick, in repairing the building. Love of brotherhood is expressed in supporting the young, caring for the elderly, caring for widows, and orphans.
Love for enemies.
A commandment that transcends the usual attitude towards people. A person who is not filled with the love of God cannot understand this commandment, much less fulfill it. Only the born again children of God can understand and fulfill this. This is sacrificial love.
“And if you love those who love you, what gratitude do you have for that? for sinners also love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what gratitude is that to you? for sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to get it back, what gratitude are you for that? for even sinners lend to sinners in order to get back the same amount . But you love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing; and you will have a great reward, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:32-36;
Be in love! Who comprehended this holy word?
Who has delved into its meaning and significance?
Loving means someone else's happiness
Watch with a tear of tenderness.
Loving is with your neighbor, as with a friend and brother,
Share his grief, torment;
Be a friend to enemies, forgive the guilty,
Having calmed down the anger of contempt.
Loving means looking with regret
To the evil and vices of people;
Show lost people the path to salvation,
Giving good advice.
Loving means for the happiness of another
Renounce personal aspirations;
Love is God's great word,
But who understood its meaning?
Ilchenko Yu.N.
Plan:
I. Introduction
God is Love (Agape) and the motive of everything He does comes from love. And God wants us to have a revelation of this and serve people out of the love He has placed in our hearts. Without it we are unable to serve people. There is a shortage of love in the world and this gives rise to many problems: rejection, hatred, suicide, divorce, mental illness.
II. God's love never fails
1 Corinthians 13:8 Love does not cease, does not end, does not stop, will always exist. She will not tolerate failure, defeat, collapse. It will not weaken, will not lose strength, will not go bankrupt.
III. God gives revelation of love
John 17:26 God loves us with the same love that He loves Jesus. The power of His love is in us.
Rom.5:5 When we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts, we accept His essence, His love. It is given to everyone.
Eph.3:20 God's love surpasses human understanding, and only God can reveal to us the truth about love.
1 John 4:16 We need to know God's love, believe in it and not rely on feelings.
To do this, you need to: 1) put the Word of God in first place, it changes our thinking; 2) reflect on the Word about love, become saturated with it - this prepares us for accepting faith; 3) act on the Word, proclaim it (whatever you say will happen to you) - we subordinate our feelings in order to love. When we start thinking about a person with love, our attitude and actions change. We know God's love so we can believe and act in love (Gal.5:6).
IV. The essence of God's love is Agape.
John 3:16 God conquered evil with love. Agape is God's unconditional, perfect love. Agape is a choice and decision, not feelings and emotions. Agape is constant, unchanging, conscious. She always takes the first step to build relationships. If we are guided by feelings, we will be offended, we will be vulnerable, but the power of God's love will protect us because it is based on faith. God has given us the ability to love to repel the attacks of the enemy and win. God's love provides a way out, salvation, hope. John 15:10-11 Agape brings joy.
Matt. 5:43-46 Agape helps us love our enemies. Matthew 10:36– the enemy with a spirit of rebellion can act through our relatives, through our family, but God gives us the power of love to bless them. Only God's love through us will change their lives.
Joseph's example: although he was betrayed by his brothers, there was no resentment or revenge in his heart. God was with him because Joseph was with God. Filled with God's love, he did not allow himself to be offended and did not allow darkness, anger and hatred into his heart.
Gen.50:30 Joseph allowed God to act and overcome evil with good. Forgiveness is the movement and action of God's love. Direct your thoughts in a good direction.
When we use love languages to serve people and build relationships, the Lord manifests through us: good words bring life and inspiration (make a list of kind words, teach them and practice them); time - this sacrifice of sociability is pleasing to God (Hebrews 13:16); gifts indicate that you care about the person; help - good deeds with which you serve people; touches open hearts, God touches people through us.
The power of God's love is the most great power in a Universe that will never cease or disappear. So don't let evil control you, but trust God, be filled with His love and let Him work through you to serve people, to bless and change their lives.
Sermon:
Today we will continue to talk about the royal priesthood. This is such an endless topic, like the Kingdom of God itself, like God himself, like God’s endless love. We can talk about this and talk about it, why? So that we absorb the word of God, so that faith comes into our hearts, so that we become doers of the Word that we listen to, and not just listeners of this word.
1 Corinthians 13:8 “Love never fails, although prophecies cease, tongues are silent, and knowledge is abolished.”. Love agape never stops. The expanded translation of the word “does not cease” means does not end. It cannot end because God is love itself - unconditional love that loves without demanding anything in return, that does not set any conditions. For our human understanding, this is a difficult topic, in fact, because our relationships are built on the understanding: I am for you - you are for me. Our relationships are often built on feelings. In our country, it mainly prevails "fileo"(Greek word) - friendly love. This is love for people who I like, who are nice, who are pleasant.
But God tells us about completely different truths. He tells us to love our enemies. How can you humanly love your enemies? As a human being, you don’t want to love, but to beat. But we will see what God's Word says on this subject. Truth sets us free. Only God's love - "agape", never ceases, it is endless, it will not fail, it will not lose strength, it will not weaken, it will not fail, it will not go bankrupt. What great power there is in God's love.
Relationships in the Kingdom of God are built on relationships of love. Why? Because God Himself always acts from a heart of love, His motive is the motive of love. Everything God does for us is done out of love. He looks at us with love, thinks of us with love, acts towards us with love. Therefore, in order for us to be truly one with God, it is very important for us to understand God as love. Because God is love, God is agape, God is unconditional love. This is very difficult for human understanding, but we believe that the Holy Spirit will give us revelations. His revelations, His truth, will bring us freedom, and freedom will bring us blessings and strength.
John 17:26 "And I revealed to them your name and I will reveal that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” If we look carefully, we will find that Jesus Christ says that the love with which the Father loved Jesus Christ abides in us. Look how much God loves us. According to human reasoning, the Father should love Jesus more. He does everything for the Father, He fulfilled the perfect will of God, He did everything that needed to be done and continues to do. Why should we be loved? But Jesus says: “I will show them Your love. The love with which You loved Me will also be in them.” The power of God's love is within us. If you accepted Jesus Christ into your heart, together with Him you accepted His essence - His love. God loves each of us with the same love with which He loved Jesus, without belittling us or degrading us in the least.
Rome. 5:5 “But hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”. God's love was poured out into our hearts. Every believer has this great potential of God's love, in each of us who have accepted Jesus Christ there is the power of God's love. It has already been poured into your heart, you already have it, we just need to see it, know it, believe in it, release it. Faith works through love. In the spiritual world, everything works through faith. We cannot receive anything from God without faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
1 John 4:16 “And we knew and believed in the love that God has for us.” We have come to know God's love. We always associate love with feelings, we have either phileo, or storge, or eros - this is what we feel. But it is written here that we have known and believed in the love that God has for us. What do we need to do? We need to know - learn about it, enter into the truth of God's love, and believe in it. Therefore, God's agape love works according to faith and not according to the flesh. It's not our feelings, it's the power of God that comes through faith. We need to develop faith in God's love. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God.
How do we use the principles of faith? We take the Word of God, we put it first, and we look at what the Word of God says about a topic. If we are sick, then we take the Word of God, which speaks of healing. If we have a problem with finances or something else, we find a certain Word of God that speaks on the subject, and we put that Word first. We don't put feelings first, we put God's Word first. Then we meditate on the Word of God. Why do you need to think? When we meditate, we become saturated with this Word of God, meditating prepares us to accept faith. Reflection prepares our heart, it prepares us so that we can receive it and so that our heart becomes good soil.
Psalm 1.
Why was the man blessed? Because he was in the Word of God day and night. He thought about it, and thought, and thought, until this truth was revealed to him. This revelation brought him faith, because faith comes by hearing the Word of God. And in order for us to believe in God’s love, we need to know it - this happens through our reflections.
If you need to know and believe something, you need to write down the corresponding passages of Scripture. If we talk about God's love, there must be corresponding scriptures about God's love that we will read and meditate on. Then our heart will be freed from all stones, from thorns, from everything that prevents this Word from taking root in us. Our heart will become good soil for receiving the Word. Then we need to act by faith, because faith without works is dead. Not only to know, not only to believe in God’s love, but also to live in God’s love.
How do we do this? I remind you of the principle of faith. We make a decision. It all starts with our decision. If you make a decision to live a life of love, and you think about it, and then you begin to act, then your faith begins to act in love. Therefore, we need to renew our thinking, we need to confess the Word of God. Do not confess your feelings, because most often, we confess our feelings: “How bad I feel, how hard it is for me, it hurts, how much I don’t like this person, he annoys me.” When we say this, we are confessing how we feel about ourselves, about that person, and not what the Word of God says. As a result, we have what we say, and often, you don’t even know why you don’t like the person.
Sometimes you look at a person and think: “I don’t like him, it seems normal person? But it seems to you that everything about him is wrong, and his clothes are wrong, and he walks wrong, and speaks wrong, and he laughs so disgustingly.” Sometimes we don’t even know where it comes from in us and why. But if we put the Word of God first, then everything aligns, everything comes in accordance with the Word of God. Our meditation on the Word of God changes our thinking, and our confession releases faith. It will happen to you that you can’t tell. We need to say in victory, “Lord, I choose to develop faith in love, I choose to walk in love, think in love, act in love, respond in love.” Because that's the kind of life Jesus lived. He said: "The works that I did you will do". If His life was a life of love, a life of service, then it should be the same for each of us. By accepting Jesus Christ into our lives, together with Him we accepted His mission, His plans, His desires. We must have the same feelings (Phil.2:5).
But our feelings often contradict the feelings of the Word of God. But in the beginning there was the Word. You always need to remember what to do first - the first, second, third step. And so gradually, we enter into what God tells us to do. Therefore you pray, you speak, you confess, and you reject all your selfishness. We all have a lot of egoism. It manifests itself in difficult situations very easily and quickly. While we are sitting, so sweet, kind and cheerful, but as soon as someone steps on your foot, or says: “Move over, this is my place,” it will immediately be clear how you love your neighbor and what you will say to him in response. We must not be forgetful listeners. We listen, we experience God's love in order to believe in it and act on God's love.
IN modern world a lot is said about love. Films, songs, books, novels - this is the most frequently discussed topic, this is what people think and talk about most often. Despite this, love is the most big deficit on the ground. There is a lack of love in the world. Why? Because the whole world lies in evil. Evil is the opposite of love. Evil is sin, hatred, non-forgiveness, aggression. The whole world lies in this aggression, in non-forgiveness, in hatred. The atmosphere of evil presses on every person, not only on non-believers. But they are even more susceptible to it because they do not know how to resist it. But it also puts pressure on us, the believers. We must understand that God has given us the ability to repel these attacks. And not only to reflect, but also to win.
There are many in society various problems. For example, the problem of suicide. Why do people commit suicide? Because they feel unwanted, rejected, they have given up on their lives. They don’t think about what they need, they direct their thoughts not into the channel of life, but into the channel of death. What's the reason? Lack of love. But it is God's love that gives salvation, it is God's love that gives a way out, it is God's love that gives hope. When we accepted Jesus Christ, we accepted God's love, and with that came faith, hope and love.
What other problems are there in the world? Divorces. Families are breaking up. In Russia, every second marriage breaks up, these are terrible things. This is especially true for young families under thirty years of age, when most divorces occur. Why? Because there is no basis for family, there is no basis for love. Love is the most strong foundation. If a family is based on love, it will overcome storms, storms, and floods. Everything will stand. We overcome everything through the power of him who loved us (Rom.8:37). We cannot overcome these storms in life, these problems, various difficulties, if we do not have the power of God's love in us. That's why there are so many divorces.
Just as much mental illness. Why? Because all diseases are caused by nerves, many people are very nervous, mental, very hot-tempered. What should they do? Some psychotherapist can give sedative drops or pills, but will this solve the problem? It won't solve it. The condition may calm down for a while, but the root of the problem is the lack of God's love. If there is no love, then the person becomes nervous, worried, and angry. Therefore, we need God's love - agape, which is unconditional.
We find it very difficult to believe in unconditional love. We always think that if I did something to you, then you owe me too. But if you haven’t done anything to me, then I don’t want to do anything for you. Then I will be offended, offended. When we are not led by God's love, but simply by our feelings, we always get offended. Because our feelings are infringed and affected. When we walk in our feelings, our feelings are very sensitive, we are so vulnerable. If you look at us the wrong way, we will be offended. But the power of God's love will protect you from offense. God's love is not based on feelings, it is based on faith. And faith makes the decision - to love. She doesn't expect anyone to love her. Many people sit and wait, who will love them? They say: “There is no love in the church, there is no love there, there is no love anywhere, no one loves me.” I remember one character from the film, there was this Panikovsky who constantly complained that his girls didn’t like him, and he had no geese, he had nothing, and his life was so pitiful and unhappy. The enemy wants to make us so pitiful and unhappy. But God's love is power. And the strong do everything arbitrarily (Proverbs 26:10). Agape is the first to take a step towards a person. She doesn't wait for anyone to come to you. If the love of God is in you, you will come first, you will act, you will express love, you will serve.
Rome. 5:8 “But God demonstrates His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God did not wait until He could love us. We often want to love people who are pleasant, soft and fluffy, beautiful and wonderful. But God loved us when we were sinners (Rom.5:8). And it was with His love that God conquered evil. He did not wait for all the people to correct themselves. They cannot reform without God's love - this is the most important ingredient for humanity to change and reform. But we accepted God, we accepted the Savior, we accepted God's love, and therefore our lives change and we become different. God's love is a choice, it is neither feelings nor emotions. God loved us, but nowhere does it explain why. He loved us - He made this decision, made this choice. In order for us to move with God, we must make the same decisions.
What else is the benefit of God's agape love? So it is not based on feelings, it is constant, it is conscious. Everything that is based on feelings is changeable. Therefore, we can see on TV that some people, he got married five times, and she got married eight times, and love quickly passed, and then another, a third, a fourth appeared, ad infinitum. In fact, it was not love. Love is a state that God gives us. This is what God Himself is. Therefore she is conscious, she chooses to love, she is not based on feelings. Our feelings are changeable, today you feel this way, tomorrow it’s different, and after tomorrow you don’t want to see. That's why many people have problems in relationships and families. That’s why he fell out of love, then she stopped loving, where did it all go, where did it go? You had a crush, phileo, it is amorphous, it often disappears. But God's love is constant, and our families will then be strong and stable. We must understand what a great advantage the Lord has given us by pouring His love into our hearts, so that we would be constant and not rush from side to side.
Focusing on feelings, we can wait until I finally like someone so that I can do something good. You can wait until I want to do something kind and good. If you sit and wait, you may never wait, but when you make a choice, you are in control. You make a choice, you decide to love other people with God's love, and you don't have to wait. If you want to have friends, you must be friendly, you must take a step forward (Proverbs 18:25). When you start thinking about a person with love, you will change towards him your attitude. From your attitude all your motives change, and when your motives change, you act from the heart of God the Father. Because His motive is love. Good thoughts give rise to a good attitude, and a good attitude gives rise to good deeds.
We talked about the five love languages. Has anyone remembered what love languages are? Present. This is self-centeredness speaking in us. The first thing we remember is what they did for us. Gifts – we are pleased. At the previous service, when I spoke about gifts, many faces broke into a smile. Because we are pleased when they give us gifts. But it doesn't all start with gifts.
Firstly, good words. It all starts with kind words - words of encouragement, inspiration and consolation. The principle “in the beginning was the word” has not changed. If we want to touch a person, to touch their heart, to build friendships, we need to tell people Nice words. There is a shortage of good words in this world. What do we hear around us? Negativity, gossip, condemnation, criticism, dissatisfaction. Very rarely do people hear kind words. Most often they hear this once a year, when it is their birthday, then they say good words to you, tell you how good you are, and wish you all the best.
We need kind words constantly, they build us up. "Death and life in the power of language" (Proverbs 18:22). Kind words give life and inspiration. To touch a person with God's love, start saying kind words. This is difficult if we are used to speaking negatively, criticizing, discussing, it is difficult for us to find kind words. I would advise you: “Write down a list of kind words and learn this new language for you.” How they teach foreign language? They write down the words and begin to learn them. And when you learn them, you begin to practice them. Write down kind words and start practicing them. Maybe at first they will sound awkward, the pronunciation is not very good, but gradually you will get used to pronouncing them. While we only swear perfectly, negative words simply fly out of us. But when kind words need to be said, sometimes a person freezes: “Well, what can I tell you? You are good, you are very good, what else can I say?” Our vocabulary should be enriched with kind words. For kind words to bear good fruit, you need to sow good seeds.
Secondly, time .
Hebrews 13:16 “Do not forget also to do good and be sociable, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” When you devote time not only to yourself, but also time to someone else, this is a pleasing sacrifice for Him, because at this time you build relationships. You listen to the person, not just tell him. The problem for believers is that we know everything, and we seem to be above non-believers, above people. We say: “They are dark, they lived in darkness, they do not know the light of the Word of God.” And as soon as they open their mouths, we immediately bombard them with what we know: quotes, tirades, scriptures. But in order to spend time with people and build relationships with them, you need to learn to listen to people, be patient, and not interrupt them. This is also not easy for our nature. If we know something, we immediately want to give it away, lay it out. But this does not open people's hearts. Because he may have wanted to say something, but in response, like from a machine gun, you began to scribble the Word of God, and that’s all - he was already confused, closed down.
Therefore, when we spend time with people, let's learn to listen to them, let's become good listeners. For a good listener, God will give a good situation, the person will reveal his problems, needs, and then knowledge will come from the lips of the priest (Mal.2:7). We, as priests, messengers of the Lord, will give the Word from God to this situation. After all, when you sit and listen to a person, at that moment you also pray and ask: “Lord, what do you want me to say to this person?” You don’t say what comes into your mind, but you pray and ask: “Holy Spirit, what kind of word does a person need? What would you like to tell him?
Third, present . It's wonderful when people give us gifts, but God wants to teach us to give gifts to others. A gift - he says. If you give a gift, it means something to the person. We need to remember people's birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, anniversaries, everything that happens to them. And when you give a gift, a person sees that he is not indifferent to you, this is your participation in his life. God gave us the most great gift, He gave us the gift of eternal life. We cannot earn salvation, we cannot deserve it. God in His mercy and grace has given us this gift, this gift. That's why we should give gifts. The nature of God is to give and demand nothing in return. Don’t demand: “I gave you something, but you didn’t give me anything.” That’s it, I won’t give anything anymore.” Remember that you must act out of God's love - agape, His love is unconditional.
Fourthly, help, good deeds . Help helps us establish relationships. When you help a person, you see how you can serve him. Each of us has different talents. What I can do, no one else can do. And what someone else can do, I cannot do. Each one serve with his gift. (1 Pet. 4:10). Serve, help others with your gift, it will bring blessings, it will strengthen your relationship with that person. Through this help, the Lord will manifest itself and the Holy Spirit will act. Who is our helper? Holy Spirit. He gives us what we don't have. The Holy Spirit gives us His gifts. Through a relationship with the Holy Spirit, we experience the fruits of the Holy Spirit. When we serve another person, the Holy Spirit works through us and touches that person's heart.
Fifthly, touch . We all know that at some point difficult situation, God has touched us. It was this touch that opened our hearts. Everything we talk about, words, time, gifts, and help - all this is God’s touch to people through us. Why? Because God loves people most of all. And because of this love, He gave Himself, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. Let us love not only in word, but in deed and in truth.
We said that if we have good thoughts, good words, good deeds, and then good feelings and a good attitude will appear. Doing good is always nice. Some people say: “When I do something bad to someone, I feel better.” Until he pours out all his anger and irritation on someone, he will not calm down. But this is not the way out that the Lord offers us. Our thoughts influence our decision, the decision influences our actions. Then our feelings and emotions appear. We must be rich in every good work (2 Cor. 9:8). And we will see how beneficial this will be for ourselves, how blessed it will be for ourselves. By helping and loving others, you will experience joy yourself.
When Jesus was born, there was great joy in heaven. All the heavens rejoiced, the angels rejoiced. They rejoiced in this gift that God had given to humanity. Therefore, this joy will come to us, and our feelings will be affected when we do something for people. We do not start with feelings, but feelings will also be affected. Because we have a soul, we have feelings, but we start with a decision, with a thought, with the word of God. If we think, think, pray, and from an attitude of love, then we begin to act accordingly. Some people think that if they help someone, love someone, they will suffer. Perhaps this is due to past experiences. You did something good to someone, helped someone, or did something good, wonderful, but in return, this person did something nasty or mean to you.
I want to advise you to read the sayings of Mother Teresa. It was great woman God's help, she served the most humiliated and insulted sections of India, the poorest and sickest people who had no hope, no future.
“People can be reasonable, illogical, selfish - forgive them anyway. If you show kindness and people accuse you of having secret, personal motives, show kindness anyway. If you are successful, you may have many imaginary friends, real enemies, still achieve success. If you are honest and frank, people will deceive you, still be honest and frank. What you have been building for years can be destroyed overnight, build anyway. If you have achieved serene happiness, everyone will envy you, still be happy. The good that you did today, people will forget tomorrow, do good anyway. Share the best you have with people, it will never be enough. In the end, you will see for yourself that all this is between you and God.”
All our actions are between us and God. This is agape, which does not require anything in return. And I love the words of this woman of God so much. She not only spoke, but also lived such a life. I don’t know which other religious figure was as famous and influential as Mother Teresa. It was accepted by kings, presidents, and kings. Why? She was not moved by feelings, she was moved by the power of God's love. If we live like her, do what the word of God says - forgive and love, do not repay evil for evil, but overcome evil with good, then a completely different life will open up for us, completely different prospects, a different influence that will God give.
John 15:10“If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. I have spoken these things to you, so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”. Jesus in His life on earth did not complain: “Father, why did you send me into this human skin. I got in and walk with these ungrateful people who today shout “Hosanna” to Me, and tomorrow they want to crucify Me. Today I help them, heal them, free them, and the next day they want to kill Me. How ungrateful people are, how bad.” Everything Jesus did, He did with joy. Therefore, what we do we need to do with joy. We will reap if we do not give up (Gal.6:9). Let us not weaken in doing good! Let's get joy from what we do. Jesus said: " My joy will be in you, and your joy will be complete.”(John 15:11). This will make us happier and better. The power of love is the greatest power, but for this you need to give up your egoism, self-centeredness.
Matthew 5:43-46 “You have heard that it was said: Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what will be your reward? Don’t tax collectors do the same?”
Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Who are our enemies?
Matthew 10:36 “And a man’s enemies are his own household.” When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, our loved ones usually do not express much joy or delight about this. They say: “Why do you need this? Where did you end up? Quit this thing quickly before they take everything away from you. They’ll take everything away, you’ll be left without a stake, without a yard.” But rather, the enemies are not themselves, but the spirit that stands behind it, the spirit of resistance. When we chose to go against the spirit of this world, against demons and devils, we chose to follow God, of course, this world reacts. And first of all, he reacts through our loved ones and relatives, but we will still love and bless them, we will pray for them.
Let's look at Joseph from the side of God's love from the Father. The story of Joseph itself is very unusual. Firstly, he was betrayed by his close people, his brothers. They betrayed him and sold him into slavery. At first they wanted to kill him, but then they thought it would be more profitable to sell him. How did Joseph feel? How do you feel when people close to you betray you? But the bad things didn’t end there for Joseph. When he got to the house of Patiphar, where he served faithfully, God was with Joseph. Why was God with Joseph? Because he was with God and walked in God's love.
If Joseph had simply acted like a man who had been deceived, wanted to kill, betrayed, what would have been in his heart? There would be a desire for revenge in his heart, his heart would be filled with hatred and anger. If he had lived in such a state, God would not have been with Joseph, the devil would have been with Joseph. Darkness and malice would fill his heart.
God is the God of love, He is agape. Joseph did not allow anger and hatred to fill his heart, he did not allow himself to succumb to the provocation of the enemy. But if he became angry and made plans to take revenge on his brothers, he would lose his spiritual strength, first of all. And when a person loses spiritual strength, then he also loses mental strength, and peace of mind. Often people, when some problem occurs, begin to spin this problem, think and think. And the more you think, the worse you become. The wrong people get worse, but you get worse. Through these thoughts, the devil begins to influence you. What thoughts are, such is the person. When you start to get angry, start to hate them, you just add fuel to the fire, and you get worse and worse. And you become empty, lost. You no longer have strength, joy, peace, or future.
Why did God give us agape love? To protect us. It is like a shield of faith that can quench the fiery arrows of the evil one. Whatever the arrow is - betrayal, betrayal, deceit, and so on - there are many arrows, but the love of God covers you like a dome, and these fiery arrows cannot hit the target, they cannot hit your heart. What is the devil trying to achieve? Get into your heart. So above all else, guard your heart (Proverbs 4:23). As soon as the poisoned arrows of anger, hatred, and non-forgiveness get there, this poison begins to kill you. And you gradually lose your strength, run out of steam, become empty. When you become powerless, it is very easy for the devil to take you captive. You cannot resist, you have left your position in Christ, you have entered another position - anger and hatred.
Why is Joseph significant for us? If you look at his life through human eyes, it was getting worse. At first, Patifar's wife accused him unfairly, and he goes to prison. Then in prison there was injustice again, one thing, another, but God was with Joseph everywhere. His heart was not hardened, but was filled with God's love. And the most interesting point when the brothers came to Joseph. They didn't recognize him yet. If Joseph were a person who held anger, he would have said: “Oh, you fell into my hands, now I’ll take revenge on you for everything, now I’ll give you a fun life.” But Joseph was not like that, he was with God. When the brothers recognized Joseph, they were all afraid. They think differently - evil for evil, betrayal for betrayal.
Genesis 50:19“And Joseph said, Fear not, for I fear God; Behold, you have plotted evil against me; but God turned it into good to do what it is now: to save the lives of a great number of people.”. As often happens in life, someone deliberately does you harm. But God will turn this evil into good if you are with Him. If Joseph wanted to take revenge and repay evil to his brothers, God could not do anything, could not advance him further, because this is not God's will. But since he allowed God to act, God's love filled him, God Himself did everything. God gave him a high position. Why? Joseph went from faith to faith, from glory to glory.
There are people who harbor deep within themselves not forgiveness, resentment, some kind of pain, this does not allow them to further move after God. Because this resentment and pain holds you like an anchor. You get caught on something and you can't move any further. That's why it's so easy to know if you're walking in God's love. When you forgive, this is an act of God's love. God gives you the power to forgive, it is not your power. But you make a decision, and God gives you strength. You make a decision, and God is with you just as God was with Joseph.
God can work in the most difficult situations. Joseph retained love and forgiveness in his heart. These are all love languages: he helped them, he gave them gifts, he did the best for them. And then the Lord touched their hearts. When we give space to God, then people change, because God Himself acts.
There is a lot of anger and hatred in the modern world today. If on the road a person does not yield to someone, or drives the wrong way, he flies out and not only curses, but takes out a pistol and shoots. Men in Peaceful time They organize shootouts on the roads because they are ready to kill a person for driving the wrong way. Hatred is always released when a person has pride. Why was he angry? His “ego” was infringed, his “I” was hurt, so anger rises to such an extent that the person is ready to shoot, kill, beat, and so on. But God's love protects our hearts, it guards our heart.
Many situations happen in our lives, but it all depends on how you react. You can also jump out: “You have a pistol, and I have a machine gun. And I will shoot with a machine gun." The enemy will provoke us, will try to take us out of God's world, out of God's love, but we must guard our hearts. Don't let the enemy's arrows hit you, don't let the arrows kill you, don't let anger and hatred devastate you. On the contrary, during difficult situations, direct your thoughts in a good direction. After all, in whatever direction you direct yourself, that’s where you will be. You can choose feelings and flesh: “My feelings were infringed, he began to call me names and insult me.” But you can choose a different path, pray for this person, bless him, bind the demons that manifest themselves through him, and not curse him and not answer him in kind.
What does it mean to bless? To bless is not to encourage his actions, but to give room for God to act in this person, so that God's light comes, God's salvation, to allow God to touch this person and change his life.
Eph.6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger.” We are very often irritable. Irritability is just the beginning, then it develops into anger. We can say not only fathers, but also mothers, do not irritate your children, do not be irritable yourself and be irritated with others. When we love and bless our enemies, we become sons of the Heavenly Father. When we act as the Father acts, then our true nature manifests itself, our sonship - this makes us different, strong. Evil people always nervous, irritable, dissatisfied, and they themselves suffer from this. Don't let anger dwell in you. Be filled with the love of God, it changes, sets and blesses us, then we bless the people who are against us. We do not curse, we do not act in the same way, but we bless, we redirect our thoughts, our words and actions into the channel of God. And God begins to act.
Ephesians 3:20 “But to Him who, by the power that works within us, is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”
I want to tell a story that happened when we were recording one of the albums in the Rio nightclub. We were looking for a club that had decent equipment, light, sound, etc., to record our album on video. We found a club, agreed, signed an agreement. And when we were almost signed up, the director of this club arrived. He was very angry and forbade us to record. But we negotiated with him, and at that time the people in the hall were praying. God changed his heart and he said, “Okay, write it down.” But when we wrote everything down and were about to leave, the huge windows of this nightclub suddenly collapsed. It was like when God's people were going around Jericho, the walls of Jericho were collapsing inwards instead of falling in as usual. The same thing happened with the club's windows.
It wasn't easy night club, it was a very bad place (as we found out later). In this place, drugs were sold, people disappeared, and various gang wars took place. The residents of this building, where the club was located, were afraid to even go into their entrances, because there was always something going on there. When the club closed, I read reviews online about how grateful people were. Before this, they contacted both the police and the authorities, but no one did anything, no one could help them. They didn't know why it closed. But we know that it closed because God came there. When the Lord intervened, then everything changed.
So, we finished everything and already arrived at the church, unloading the equipment. At this time, one of the owners, one of the main bandits, arrived at the club. When he saw what happened at the club, he was so filled with anger and hatred that he came here to church. He asks: “Where is the pastor?” I was just unloading, and I said: “I am a pastor.” And then he was carried away, with him was another of his co-workers, a thug twice taller and wider than me. He began to threaten me, took out his pistol: “Yes, I’ll shoot you,” and whatever else he wanted to do to me. In my flesh, I was also tempted to say something to him in response. When our feelings are hurt, we also want to respond somehow. But I prayed, and God told me: “Don’t respond to his attacks, just be silent.” And I stood and was silent. I think if I had answered, the situation would have been completely different.
In the midst of this conversation, my wife, Irina Ivanovna, comes out, sees this picture and accepts the only correct solution. He comes up, removes the gun in the hands of this bandit, and says: “God loves you.” It seems like this simple words, but in fact, this bandit suddenly went limp and lowered his hands. And both of these bandits silently, like two geese, went to their car, and we remained standing and watching what the Lord could do. And He can do incomparably more when we allow ourselves not to respond to evil with evil, but to overcome evil with good, then God intervenes and works miracles. Such miracles that we could never do.
Later I learned a lot about this man. It's good that I didn't know about him before. Many things God does not reveal to us right away. When we went to this club, we did not know what would happen there. But God always remains faithful. Therefore, when we are in God's love, the supernatural power of God is at work. When we obey the Word of God, then our testimony has power. Indeed, it was the power of God, no one could do it. I don’t know what he felt at that moment, why he suddenly went limp, lowered his gun, and they both went to the car. But we understand that the impossible becomes possible when we release the power of God's love. It surpasses human understanding. God is love, and the power of His love does incomparably more than what we ask or think.
The Lord wants us to receive revelation, to know, to believe in God’s love, and to move not by our own strength. Our strength, no matter how strong we are, is limited. Our resources, no matter how rich they are, are limited. But God is unlimited, God is without limitations, He is above all limitations.
Let our lives change, our thinking change. We suffer defeat because we do not give room to God, but we ourselves want to take revenge, we ourselves want to repay, we ourselves want to do something, even if not explicitly, but in thoughts or words. The power of God's love is the greatest power in the universe...
Don’t let evil control you, don’t let it control and dictate how you live, how you think, how you act. Let God be God in your life, let God's love move through you, and you will see something incredible, supernatural things begin to happen. Many times in my life I have seen God work when I relied on Him.
Joseph was the man that God was with, and he was with God. God gave him promotion, God gave him growth, incredible success because his heart was filled with God. Joseph did not allow any anger, any bitterness, or resentment to enter his heart. He walked in freedom, he walked in the power of God's love, and that's why God was able to do what He did through Joseph.
Let's stand and pray because we must practice in our lives what we are talking about here. It’s one thing to hear that we need to love our enemies and pray for those who curse us, and bless those who persecute us. It's another thing to actually do this in your life. We need to put God's Word first and meditate on the Scriptures that speak of God's love so that they enter our hearts. And through this, God will cleanse, liberate, renew and act in our lives.
I want to pray now, and I also invite everyone who watches us to pray. live. For God's love there are no distances, no limits, God's love is limitless. God's love is lacking in this world, but we can bring it to people. Many people say: “I have this, I have that, I don’t need your God.” But we know for sure that they do not have God's love. Only God has God's love, and without accepting God into his heart, no person can receive this God's love.
Prayer.
Dear Lord, we thank You for teaching us, revealing Your truths to us. Your truth makes us free from all anger, from all unforgiveness, from all selfishness. We renounce all this in the name of Jesus Christ. We decide to think thoughts of love. We decide to act in love, walk in love, respond in love. This is what You did here on earth, Jesus, and this is what we should do, as You lived, so we should live.
We pray and believe that through the power of love, our loved ones, our relatives, our colleagues, employees, they will recognize You. The power of Your love will touch people and they will open up to You, Lord. Evil cannot be overcome with evil, but evil can be overcome with God's love. Evil can be overcome by God's power. For a carnal person this will not be clear, but for a spiritual person it is understandable. The spiritual one understands everything.
May the Spirit of wisdom and revelation continue to work with us, continue to influence us, continue to work through us. We are here, Lord, not to do our will, but to do Your will. Thank You, Great God - God of agape love, God unconditional love. We worship You, we glorify You, because Your love has saved us. Your love brought You to the cross. Your love has taken our sins, our illnesses, our curses. Your love has saved us and made us healthy, blessed and happy. You told us to walk in God's love, to put on God's love. Thank You. We praise You. We exalt You, Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
In the Gospel read today (Luke 10:25-37), our Savior, God, solved a very important question for all of us: what should we do to inherit eternal life? This question was put to the Lord by some Jewish lawyer, who said: “What must I do to inherit eternal life”? The Lord pointed him to the law given to the Jews by God through Moses: “What is written in the law? How do you read? He answered, “You shall 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.” Jesus said to him: “You answered correctly; do this and you will live,” that is, forever. But he, wanting to justify himself, that is, considering himself, like the other Pharisees, a righteous person who fulfilled the law as he understood it, one-sidedly, incorrectly, said to Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” - believing that only a Jew should be considered a neighbor, and not every person. With the parable of the man wounded by robbers and the Merciful Samaritan, who took the most heartfelt and active part in him, the Lord showed that every person should be considered a neighbor, no matter who he is, even if he is our enemy, and especially when he needs help.So, this means that in order to receive an eternal life, you need to diligently fulfill two main commandments: to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. But since the whole law consists of these two commandments, it is necessary to explain them so that we know well what love for God and neighbor consists of? So, with God’s help, let’s begin the explanation.
Loveљ Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, that is, 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 the multi-passionate flesh, for sin and the devil, but devote yourself entirely to God, be all of God, all holy, in your whole life. Following the example of the Holy One who called you(of God) and be holy in all your actions, says the holy Apostle Peter (1 Pet. 1:15).
Let us 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, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind, you will never be absent-minded, lazy, careless, cold in prayer; During prayer, you will not give room in your heart for any worldly cares and worries, you will put aside all worldly cares, you will cast all your sorrow on the Lord, for He cares for you, as the apostle says. Try to understand prayer, God’s service completely, in all its depth. If you love God with all your soul, then you will sincerely repent to God of your sins, you will bring Him deep repentance every day, for every day you sin a lot. You will repent, that is, condemn yourself for your sins with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind; you will expose yourself with all merciless severity, with all sincerity; You will bring a full confession to God, a sacrifice of a complete burnt offering of sins, so that not a single sin remains unrepentant or unmourned.
Thus, to love God with all your heart means to love His truth, His law with all your heart and all your strength, and to hate with all your heart all unrighteousness, all sin; with all your heart and with all your strength to fulfill the truth, to do good and with all your heart, with all your strength, to shun evil, that is, all sin, not to give room in your heart for any sin even 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, eternally to be 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: let’s assume that you are being persecuted for piety, for truth, for virtue; if you love God, then you will not for a moment deviate 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 truth, is the greatest benefit for us and God can reward fidelity to His truth a hundredfold both in this and in the next century. An example of this is Joseph the righteous, 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 truth with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind. Thus, according to God, according to His truth, the holy fathers and holy martyrs fought, especially in the fight against heresies and schisms. This is zeal for God. Also, 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 to the best of our ability, 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? This means honoring another as you would like to be revered, not considering anyone a stranger, but your own, your brother, your member, and 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 save him from trouble, adversity, poverty, sin, just as I would try to save myself. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, - says the apostle (Rom. 12:1) . We must bear the strengths of the weak, not please ourselves; May every one of you please your neighbor for the good of creation(Rom. 15, 1-2). Pray for each other so that you may be healed(James 5:16).
љTo love your neighbor as yourself means to respect him as yourself, if, however, he is worthy of it; not to think about him unworthily, basely, without any reason on his part, not to have any evil towards him; do not envy him, but always be kind, condescend to his shortcomings, weaknesses, cover his sins with love, as we wish for them to condescend to our shortcomings. Bear with each other with love, - says the apostle (Eph. 4:2), - not repaying evil for evil, or annoyance for annoyance(1 Pet. 3:9). Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you(Matt. 5:44). If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him something to drink - says the Old Testament Scripture (Prov. 25, 22; Rom. 12, 20).
To love your neighbor as yourself means to pray for the living and the dead, relatives and non-relatives, acquaintances and strangers, for friends and enemies just as much as for yourself, and to wish them as much good, the salvation of the soul, as you do for yourself. This is what the Holy Church teaches in her daily prayers.
To love your neighbor as yourself also 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, friend or enemy, because it is all the same God, all in the image of God, all are children 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. Let us understand this way and 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
You and I, dear ones, have entered the days of the strict Dormition Lent. The Holy Church in order to prepare us for a worthy meeting of the great Christian holiday - the Dormition Mother of God, specially sets up posts.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
You and I, dear ones, have entered the days of the strict Dormition Lent. The Holy Church, in order to prepare us for a worthy meeting of the great Christian holiday - the Dormition of the Mother of God, specially establishes fasts. I want to remind you of the words of the stichera, the chant in which the Church teaches us what fasting is and how it should be carried out: Let us fast a pleasant fast, pleasing to the Lord. True fasting is alienation of evil, abstinence of the tongue, putting aside rage, excommunication of lusts, speaking, lying and perjury. In this impoverishment, fasting is true and auspicious(2nd stichera for Vespers on Monday of the 1st week of Great Lent). This is a true and favorable fast for the Lord. Moving away from these vices, from a vicious state, constitutes true fasting. And first of all, we need to pay attention to restraining and curbing our tongue. This is a small member, but if we do not curb it, then during the days of fasting it will drag us through the jungle of all lies, slander, condemnation and slander. You also need to pay attention to trying to remove from your heart all hatred and hostility towards your neighbor, trying to be quiet, meek, humble, gracious and loving in everything and towards everyone. In particular, one must acquire love as the mother of all virtues. Somehow, in a previous conversation, I already spoke in relation to this virtue, about how important this virtue is, how necessary it is for our salvation. Because love constitutes the highest good in our Christian life, and without love all our deeds of piety, such as fasting, prayer, abstinence, chastity, charity, will have no moral value. All this has no true dignity if there is no love for one's neighbor. And the whole difference between a Christian is precisely in his love for his neighbor. Without love a Christian is not a Christian. And Christianity is not Christianity. Love is the law of the human heart, the law of every moral, rational being. This law unites all living things, all creatures into a single whole harmony. And if humanity does not submit itself to this law, then it condemns itself to suffering, delusion and death. Why? Because God, by His nature, is essentially a God of love and a God of peace. And the holy Apostle Paul, in the 13th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, sang a hymn of Christian love. He pointed to the greatness of Christian love, pointed precisely to those unearthly properties of Christian love that our Lord Jesus Christ commanded to the world. In the Message he writes that love is long-suffering, merciful, love does not envy, love is not arrogant, is not proud, is not rude, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; covers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything ().
Love - long-suffering . That is, he complacently endures all troubles, all insults, all lies, without succumbing to the movements of anger and revenge. Longsuffering is the root of all prudence. And so according to the word of the Wise One, a long-suffering man is wise in understanding. The weak are strong against madness . And, extending the thought further, the Wise One compares this virtue with the fortress of a city, saying that it is stronger than even the strongest city. Love is merciful , suffers a lot of troubles from others, but she herself does not do or cause any harm to her neighbor. On the contrary, she accepts all the sorrows of her neighbors as her own. And, being compassionate to his neighbor, he tries to console and help in trouble. She pours herself like oil on wounds in order to console and calm her neighbor in grief and misfortune. And he does not calm down until he does it, until he brings comfort to the grieving person.
Love doesn't envy neither talents, nor differences, nor the success of a neighbor in his affairs, nor his external well-being. She does not envy any good or perfection of her neighbor, because this is contrary to her nature. On the contrary, the essence of love is to desire and do only good, good to all people. She does not want only herself to be happy, but she strives and wants all people to be happy. This is the property of true Christian love.
Love not exalted , that is, it is not carried on, does not boast. It is love that makes a person prudent, sedate, and decent. Arrogance and frivolity are characteristic only of those people who love others with carnal love. And those who love with truly spiritual love are free from this.
Love not proud . No matter how gifted a person may be, if he has truly Christian love, then he never dreams of himself that he has something better in comparison with another living being. And no matter how many good deeds he has done, he still believes that he has done nothing special. This is the property of true Christian love.
Love does not get irritated, does not think evil . That is, even if the one to whom a Christian does good causes him some kind of trouble, then Christian love is still not upset. She still tries to do good deeds, despite any, perhaps, bad behavior on the part of the person to whom love is shown. Love even thinks no evil . She does not think evil in evil. Just as love itself is alien to all deceit, all evil, so in others, in a loved one, it does not see this evil. Others may see this evil in a person, but love does not see it in him - because it loves. Love endures everything, covers everything, all shortcomings, all weaknesses, infirmities. A person has to endure all sorts of troubles, maybe even reproaches and beatings. But loving person covers it all. An example can be given from Old Testament- the life of the holy king and prophet David. David was a very loving man and had the gift of love. And when he rebelled against him own son Absalom, who intended to seize power and destroy his father for the sake of lust for power, David endured all this very calmly. He did not utter a single reproachful word towards his son. And even after his commander killed Absalom, the prophet David, like a child, cried for him: my son Absalom! (), - not remembering the evil that his own son caused him.
Love believes everything . Love believes a loved one, no matter what he says, not suspecting, perhaps, that there is some kind of deceit in the words. But love believes everything , endures everything and hopes everything . These, in a nutshell, are precisely the properties of true Christian love, which the Lord commanded us. One must acquire it and love one’s neighbor with this love. And by neighbor we must mean every person, no matter who he is.
I have already said that all our deeds of external piety - fasting, prayer, chastity, mercy - will have no moral value if they are not combined with love for one’s neighbor. Among these acts of piety, prayer comes first. But prayer is pleasing to God only when it is combined with love. If, on the contrary, hatred, rancor, and ill will towards our neighbor live in our hearts, then even if a person is both pious and pious, the Lord will not accept such a prayer. God our Father is the God of the world. Therefore, alien to love and peace, they only insult God with their prayers. They are not even allowed to go to church until they are reconciled with their neighbor. And how can they ask God for forgiveness, forgiveness of their sins, their debts, but they themselves still do not forgive their neighbor! And until they forgive their neighbors for their sins and reconcile with them, until then the Lord does not forgive them and does not accept their prayers.
Not only prayer, but even suffering for faith is not pleasing to God if the suffering person does not forgive the sins of his neighbor. Story Christian Church knows many such examples. One of them is the example of Sapricius the presbyter. In the first centuries of Christianity, during the persecution of Christians, he endured much torment and suffering for the faith of Christ. And the crown of martyrdom was already being prepared for him. But just before his execution, his friend Nikifor turned to him, who had quarreled with him over something. Now he asked him for forgiveness. But Sapriky did not forgive him. And immediately the grace of God departed from him. And he was afraid death penalty, renounced the cross and deprived himself of the crown of martyrdom, which was accepted by the same Nicephorus, who confessed himself to be a Christian, and was immediately executed. The deeds of our chastity, our fasting, and asceticism will have no value in the eyes of God if they are not connected, united with love for our neighbor.
Let us again turn to the gospel narrative. The rich young man who asked the Savior: What must I do to inherit eternal life? (). The Savior pointed out to him the fulfillment of the commandments. The young man replied that he was fulfilling these commandments. The Savior, seeing in his soul that he was selfish, that he was addicted to wealth, said: sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me (). The young man was selfish, had an addiction to wealth, and selfishness cannot be combined with love for one’s neighbor. A self-seeker, on the contrary, often acts unfairly to acquire his illegal wealth to the detriment of truth, to the detriment of love for his neighbor. Therefore, the young man departed with sadness and lost eternal life, although he seemed to have fulfilled all the other commandments. The main commandment was and remains love for one's neighbor. Therefore, we must remember that in Christianity there are two main commandments - to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your being, with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself ( Wed.: ; ; ). There are no greater commandments than these. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I remind you and myself in the coming days of the Dormition Fast that in addition to zeal for external, bodily fasting and abstinence, it is necessary to pay attention to your internal state, to eradicate every vice in our soul, so that we can crucify within ourselves all pride, conceit, vanity, selfishness, pride and try to acquire condescension, mercy, and love for our neighbor. Without this, our fasting will not bring us success. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, let you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. , says the Lord (). So let us try to spend these days of fasting to the best of our ability in abstinence and Christian perfection, purity and piety, trying not to offend our neighbor either in word or deed, trying to acquire love for each other. Let us imitate the first Christians, who, as I have already said, although they suffered terrible persecution: they were robbed, their property was taken away, Christian blood was shed, but they were united in such a way strong union the love they have there was one heart and one soul (). And therefore they endured all sorts of misfortunes and persecutions from the pagan world. May the Lord help us to spend these days as it pleases Him, our God. Glory to our God forever! Amen.
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