Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Spiritual instruction; Theophan the Recluse; complete conversion to God; Orthodox teaching on baptism; turning to God from sin; the reign of God within; Russian Orthodox spirituality; renouncing the world and passions; Religion & Spirituality; Christianity / Orthodox; Christianity / Christian Living / Spiritual Growth
Description: Conversion, for Saint Theophan the Recluse, is not a threshold crossed once and left behind — it is a turning of the whole heart, and most turnings, he warns, are only half made. In eight discourses he traces the complete return to God: what grace works in the font of baptism, the zeal it kindles, the counterfeit calm of a partial surrender, the reign of God won within, and — closing with Saint Isaac the Syrian — what the “world” a Christian must renounce actually is.

On Complete Conversion to God

Theophan the Recluse

Royal Archives

2026

Copyright

The modern English translation and the cover design are © 2026 Royal Archives. All rights reserved.

The underlying source text is in the public domain.

Published by Royal Archives

First published 2026

Translated by Royal Archives

Source: Творения иже во святых отца нашего Феофана Затворника. — М.: Изд. Афонского Русского Пантелеимонова монастыря (дореволюционное издание, переизд.).

Cover: The Return of the Prodigal Son (c. 1668) by Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), Wikimedia Commons (Google Art Project), which is in the public domain.

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:o_sovershennom_obrashhenii:en:1

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov on the tenth of January, 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in Oryol Governorate, the son of a priest. He was schooled where the sons of clergy were schooled—the theological college at Livny, then the seminary at Oryol—and in 1837 entered the Kiev Theological Academy, one of the great centers of Russian spiritual learning, taking his master’s degree in theology in 1841. A year before graduating he had already set the direction of his life: in October 1840 he received monastic tonsure and the name Theophan, in honor of Saint Theophanes the Confessor.

The decades that followed carried him across the whole surface of the Church’s public work. He taught in the academies and seminaries, served on the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem in the years around the Crimean War, held a post at the embassy church in Constantinople, and rose to the rectorship of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. In 1859 he was consecrated bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, and in 1863 he was translated to the ancient see of Vladimir. He was, by every account, a diligent and pastoral bishop, forever founding schools and preaching to his people.

Yet the office of a bishop was not, in the end, the life he wanted. In 1866, after twenty-five years of active service, he petitioned to be relieved of his diocese and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov region, a quiet monastery on the Vysha River. For six years he lived there as an ordinary monk, attending the common services and receiving visitors. Then, after Pascha of 1872, he closed his door. For the remaining twenty-two years of his life he saw almost no one—only his confessor and his cell-attendant—and built a small chapel in his rooms where he served the Liturgy alone. This voluntary enclosure gave him the name by which the Church now knows him: Theophan the Recluse, the recluse of Vysha.

Reclusion did not mean silence. From his cell flowed one of the largest bodies of spiritual writing in the Russian language. He answered, by hand, the twenty to forty letters that arrived each day from souls seeking counsel; he translated the Philokalia into Russian, giving the Slavic world its most influential edition of that anthology of ascetic wisdom; he produced the classics of Russian moral and ascetical theology — The Path to Salvation, What the Spiritual Life Is and How to Be Attuned to It — and the beloved rendering of the treatise known in English as Unseen Warfare. He died in his solitude on the sixth of January, 1894. Nearly a century later, in June 1988, the Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints. His memory is kept in the Church’s calendar, and his letters and treatises remain in constant use wherever Christians take the inner life seriously.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

On Complete Conversion to God from the Seductions of the World and of Sin — to give the book its full Russian title—belongs to the pastoral, not the reclusive, Theophan. Its substance is a set of seven sermons that he preached to his congregations, in part at Tambov and in part at Vladimir, during his years as a serving bishop between 1859 and 1866. They were gathered and published only after he had retired: they appeared first in the Tambov Diocesan Gazette in 1867 and were then issued as a small separate book. In the chronological catalogue of his printed works, this is the very first title—the earliest of the many volumes that would issue from Vysha, though the preaching behind it reaches back into his active episcopate.

The occasion is therefore the ordinary one of a bishop in his cathedral, addressing the people he serves Sunday after Sunday. But the concern that drives these homilies is anything but routine, and Theophan states it plainly. He is worried about a particular kind of Christian—not the open unbeliever, and not the fervent saint, but the great middle company of the baptized who have made a comfortable peace with God while quietly keeping back a portion of the heart for themselves. He calls this the danger of a conversion left unfinished. A man may keep the outward forms of the faith, attend its services, hold its ideas, perform its charities, and still have a heart that is turned, at its center, toward the world. Against this half-turning Theophan preaches a single insistent word: that the heart must turn to God completely.

He names, too, an intellectual mood of his own century that gives this half-heartedness its excuse—the fashionable opinion that a cultivated, enlightened Christianity ought to be able to blend love of God with love of the world, and that strict detachment is the mark of narrow and gloomy souls. Much of the book is an argument against exactly this reconciliation. Theophan means to take from his hearers the false peace that lets them believe they can serve God and keep the world both. His purpose is not to condemn but to disturb—to awaken a sleeping conscience, hold up a mirror, and press each listener to examine whether his own conversion is entire, and, finding it partial, to complete it.

Argument and Structure

The seven sermons can be read as one sustained argument, each taking up where the last left off, followed by a short appendix that answers a question the sermons deliberately leave open. The movement runs from the beginning of the Christian life to its most searching self-examination and out to a precise definition of what must be renounced.

The first sermon begins at the font. Baptism, Theophan teaches, is a “bath of regeneration” that reaches inward and re-forms the person. Drawing on Saint Paul’s language of dying and rising with Christ, he describes how the scattered powers of a fallen soul—an enlightened conscience, a recovered fear of God, a freedom strengthened by grace, communion restored through faith—are gathered by grace, as metal is fused in a crucible, into a new inward person. He is careful to insist that grace works nothing mechanically here: it seals a moral change already stirring in the soul, so that nature and grace are mingled together like copper alloyed with silver, outwardly the same and inwardly transformed.

From that renewal springs the theme of the second sermon: the “ardor of zeal” for God that Theophan calls the very pulse of Christian life, so that whoever has it lives and whoever lacks it merely sleeps. Here he sorts his hearers into three companies—the fervent, who need no exhortation; those who have turned wholly away, who cannot be reached; and, in the middle, the outward Christians “without the Spirit of Christ,” to whom, he says, his words are chiefly directed, himself first among them. The bulk of the sermon is a long, tender appeal addressed to the reluctant soul, urging it to remember its first dignity and turn back to the God who seeks it.

The third sermon is the sharpest, and in a sense the heart of the book. Its text is the rich young man of the Gospel who “went away grieving” because one attachment was dearer to him than heaven. Theophan reads this scene as the pattern of every incomplete conversion: a man who genuinely wants salvation but will not surrender the one thing he has reserved. He presses the diagnosis home—a single uncut root lets the whole tree live, a single hidden attachment defiles every pious deed, and whatever a man will not yield to God for its sake has become, in effect, his god. Our peace, he warns, if it rests on such a reservation, is a false peace.

The fourth sermon turns from diagnosis to remedy, and its tone changes to consolation: “Do not be afraid!” If the complete turning of the heart is finally the work of grace, that is cause for hope, not despair, for grace is near. Our part is fervent desire and self-compulsion; God’s part is the deliverance itself, which He gives through the ordinary channels of the Church’s life—her services, her Scriptures, and above all the Mysteries of confession and communion. Theophan illustrates the whole economy with an extended parable of a royal valley whose paths, some pure and some mixed with the roads of a hostile kingdom, lead travelers either to the prince’s house or astray.

The fifth sermon takes up the Lord’s command to “seek first the Kingdom of God” and locates that Kingdom, on the Lord’s own authority, “within you.” Each person is a small realm whose throne is the heart; God reigns there when He becomes king of the mind, the will, and the affections, and the passions that had set up their idols are driven out. Where God so reigns, Theophan says, there is blessedness—the union of the soul with a God who is jealous for it as a bridegroom for his bride.

The sixth sermon, “On Gracious Choice,” sets two kingdoms side by side—the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of “the prince of this age”—and contrasts them point by point: their kings, their laws, their promises, and their ends. The one is certain, truthful, and enduring; the other shifting, deceptive, and empty. Theophan declines even to command a choice, since only a person who has lost all sense could hesitate; he simply lays the two before his hearers and prays them out of the enemy’s snare.

The seventh sermon anticipates an objection. Perhaps, a hearer might think, the preacher’s severity toward “the world” is only his private opinion. In answer, Theophan resolves to say nothing of his own and instead gathers into one place what the Lord and His apostles say about the world—a dense chain of testimony from the Gospel of John, the catholic epistles, and Saint Paul, all pointing one way. But this raises the question the sermon ends on: what, exactly, is this “world” a Christian must leave? He promises to answer another time.

The appendix supplies that answer, and it is characteristic of Theophan that he gives it not in his own words but in those of a Father of the desert. Quoting Saint Isaac the Syrian, he defines “the world” as a collective name for the passions themselves—attachment to riches, carnal pleasure, the craving for honor and power and human praise, the fear for the body—so that a person can measure precisely by how many of these “members” he still lives to the world and by how many he has died to it. The book thus closes by handing the congregation a diagnostic instrument rather than a slogan.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The lasting value of these sermons lies in the way they hold together two things that are often pulled apart: the objective work of grace and the moral responsibility of the person. Theophan is emphatic that salvation is God’s doing—baptism regenerates, grace alone can loose the soul’s bonds, and no one tears himself from the world by his own strength. Yet he is equally emphatic that grace will not act without us, that it waits for a disposition it will not force, and that the “chief obstacle” is our own insincerity toward a truth we already know. The whole book lives in the space between these claims, and its pastoral genius is to make the reader feel both the sufficiency of grace and the urgency of his own consent.

Its central and most searching contribution is the theme announced in its title: the difference between a partial and a complete conversion. Theophan gives unusually precise attention to the spiritual pathology of the reserved attachment—the single kept thing that quietly poisons an otherwise devout life, the piety that becomes “an instrument of sin.” In naming the “neither hot nor cold” Christian and refusing him the comfort of his half-measures, the book takes its place in the long ascetic tradition, from the Fathers of the desert forward, that treats the divided heart as the fundamental spiritual problem. That the sermons close by borrowing Saint Isaac the Syrian’s definition of the world signals Theophan’s own self-understanding: he preaches not a private rigor but the common mind of the Church’s ascetic teachers, rendered into the language of nineteenth-century parishioners.

The book also engages a live controversy of its day, and one that has hardly aged—the claim that mature, cultured Christianity can be reconciled with a whole-hearted love of the world. Theophan’s answer, that faith and the world are as incompatible as light and darkness, is uncompromising, but he takes pains to ground it in the plain words of Scripture rather than in temperament, and to distinguish a right renunciation of “the world” (the passions) from any contempt for creation or for the ordinary duties of life. The Christian, in his account, may be fully occupied with the affairs the conditions of life require, provided the inward turning of the heart is given to God alone. This is a teaching for people living in the middle of the world, not for monks only, and that is precisely why a retired bishop thought it worth publishing first among all his books.

Suggestions for Reading

These are sermons, and they read best as sermons—heard rather than studied, taken one at a time. A reader coming to Theophan for the first time might begin with the third discourse, on the rich young man, where the book’s whole argument comes to a point, and then read outward from there. The repetitions are deliberate: Theophan circles his single theme on purpose, approaching “complete conversion” from the font, from zeal, from self-examination, from grace, from the indwelling Kingdom, and from the nature of the world in turn, trusting that a truth so easily forgotten needs to be met from many sides. The images—the crucible, the alloyed copper, the freed bird, the royal valley, the two kingdoms—are the hinges of his thought, and it rewards a reader to pause on them. The closing appendix from Saint Isaac the Syrian is best kept for last, as Theophan intended, as the sober definition toward which everything before it has been moving.

The Text and This Edition

This edition presents On Complete Conversion to God in a fresh, readable modern English translation made directly from Saint Theophan’s Russian. The Russian text follows the pre-revolutionary edition of his collected works issued by the Russian Monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos, as preserved in the public-domain text now available through the digital library azbyka.ru. It is an English-only edition, intended for continuous reading.

A word on the Scripture quotations, which are woven through every page. Theophan preached and wrote from the Church Slavonic and Russian Synodal Bibles, and often adapted their wording to his argument. In this edition the scriptural passages have been rendered from Theophan’s own wording as he gives it, rather than replaced with the phrasing of any existing English Bible, so that the reader hears the text as he shaped it for his hearers. Scripture references are cited in the modern Arabic style familiar to English readers—book, chapter, and verse—for ease of use.

In keeping with the conventions of this series, the work is attributed as the Church has always received it, to Saint Theophan the Recluse; those who have carried it into English are credited as translators, never as authors. The aim throughout has been a dignified, contemporary English that lets a nineteenth-century Russian bishop speak plainly to a reader today, without the stiffness of older translation and without smoothing away the directness—at times the bluntness—with which he addressed the people he loved and worried over.

The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

The holy Apostle Paul, discoursing on the holy Mystery of baptism, compares its hidden power to the death and resurrection of the Lord. When we are immersed, he says, in the font, we die; when we come forth from the font, we rise. We die in the font to the life of the flesh and sin, and we rise from the font to life in the spirit, holy and pleasing to God. “«Or are you ignorant that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, so also we may walk in newness of life…. Our old self was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin»” (Rom. 6:3–4, 6).

Therefore, just as the risen Lord is resplendent, so our nature becomes resplendent when renewed in the bath of regeneration by the grace of the Holy Spirit. But let us not think, brothers, that grace alone accomplishes all here, and accomplishes it only externally or mechanically. No—its saving action is accomplished invisibly, within. The grace of the Spirit, coming upon us in baptism, seals within itself a series of inward changes of the heart and movements of the spirit, and from these forms in us the new “«hidden person of the heart»” (1 Pet. 3:4). The holy Apostle Peter therefore names baptism “«the questioning of a good conscience before God»” (1 Pet. 3:21) as the formation of a particular, firm moral character through grace. I will clarify for you what and how these things come to pass and ought to come to pass, with a few thoughts.

The All-merciful Lord, having created man in His image and likeness, thereby indicated to him his ultimate goal: the innermost communion with Himself, and guarded the attainment of it with certain conditions within man’s reach. God laid the path to achieving this goal in the zealous fulfillment of His holy will, which He imprinted upon man’s pure and spotless conscience—but He did not bind him in his activity; rather, He endowed him with freedom to act as he wishes, according to his own judgment, so that he would himself voluntarily and willingly orient himself toward unwavering obedience to God’s revealed will. And so that man might be able to master this freedom, God implanted in that same spirit, in which freedom dwells, the fear of God—that is, the sense of total dependence upon God the Almighty, the all-providential, and the all-rewarding. These are all the elements of our spiritual life in its original design. United in one, they would have formed a moral, spiritual person whose life would be ordered and perfected so that man, in a sense of his total dependence on God, would himself willingly orient himself toward unwavering obedience to God’s holy will, as interpreted by conscience, confident that through this he would remain in the innermost communion with God, the source of life, and be blessed in Him. This is man’s true calling, and thus his life would always proceed—just as it constantly proceeds among the holy Angels—if not for the fall.

The fall disrupted the inner order of spiritual life. Man fell away from God, and immediate communion with Him ceased; the sense of dependence on Him died away or weakened—and man no longer had the strength to master his freedom, drawn now away from God’s will, especially since conscience either stopped interpreting God’s will altogether or began to interpret it wrongly. Thus the elements of spiritual life fell apart, and spiritual life ceased to be.

Meanwhile, human nature remained the same, and man’s calling remained the same. Therefore, his restoration could occur in no other way than through the restoration of his original spiritual powers and their return to their predestined mutual ordering. This is what the Mystery of baptism accomplishes, after man has been prepared for it through a series of moral changes…

I will give you an example to clarify this. The holy Apostle Peter proclaims after the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Those who heard him cried out: “What” then “shall we do?»” (Acts 2:37) The holy Apostle answered: “«Repent,” repent and believe in the Gospel, “and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ… and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit»” (Acts 2:38).

Let us examine what happens here! The proclamation enlightens the conscience; the enlightened conscience awakens the sense of dependence on God, or fear of God, and then—a cry from the heart: what shall we do? In response, they are told: repent, believe, receive grace through baptism. To repent means to resolve to abandon ungodly deeds, to turn to God (Acts 3:19) and to direct one’s freedom again toward obedience to His will, as it was determined from the beginning. The penitent is ready for this, but how can he approach it when he feels, on one hand, his moral powerlessness, and on the other hand, estrangement from God, whom he has always offended, and from his own conscience, which he has always wounded? For the healing of these chief infirmities, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is given to him as the sole means to peace and reconciliation with God, and the grace of the Spirit as support for moral strength and steadfastness. Do you see how here, in the new gracious arrangement, all the former elements and powers of spiritual life, weakened and dispersed in the fall, are restored to their proper place and union? The sense of dependence on God is awakened in repentance, the conscience is enlightened by the Word, freedom is strengthened by grace, communion with God is mediated through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the sole Mediator of God and mankind… Thus all elements, each through its own particular enlivening cure, are brought to life.

It remains now to unite them into one, to gather them, like rays, into a single focus. This is accomplished in the font of baptism, which in this regard is like a gracious crucible where from these restored elements of spiritual life, the all-powerful grace creates “«a new creation in Christ” Jesus» (2 Cor. 5:17), forms “«the hidden person of the heart»” (1 Pet. 3:4). We come forth from the font made new in this very sense; we feel ourselves to have tasted new life and begin to be blessed. See what is said of those converted by the preaching of the holy Apostle Peter. “«Those who received the word” were “baptized»” (Acts 2:41). And immediately it is added: they began to devote themselves to teaching, to fellowship, to prayer, all were together, they had all things in common, as if of one soul and one body, they remained united in the church, constantly praising God, and lived in joy and simplicity of heart (Acts 2:42-47). As soon as they were baptized, they began to live a new life. This new life is recognized by all the baptized and is their lot and inheritance. Now, gathering into one thought all the principles of spiritual and gracious life, corresponding to its original design, we see that each baptized person, in his inward disposition, is this: trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, reconciled with God and having received from Him the gracious power, the Christian feels himself called and strengthened for unwavering obedience to God’s will, and he zealously strives toward it with readiness for all labors or sacrifices, already experiencing here the temporary joy in communion with God and tasting beforehand the joy eternal that is to come. In this consists “«the questioning of a good conscience»” (1 Pet 3:21), or the formation of a Christian moral character.

I bring this to your attention so that you do not forget that the power of baptism consists not only in the gracious renewal of the natural powers of the spirit, but also in the moral transformation of character—in both together. According to God’s design, moral changes occur first in the spirit of man, and then grace, entering through the Mystery, seals them in him and thereby renews his very nature. In the Christian, there is not just nature alone, but grace as well. In appearance he is the same as all non-Christians, but in reality he is a mingling and admixture of nature and grace. Copper, for example, produces a dull sound when struck alone, but when combined with silver it sounds purer and clearer, although no difference is noticeable to the eye. Copper alone is our nature; copper combined with silver is that same nature, engraced in baptism. Take an apple from a wild tree and an apple from a cultivated orchard. In appearance they may be perfectly similar, yet their inner value is quite different. So the Christian and the non-Christian appear outwardly almost identical, yet their inward character, and indeed their very constitution, is not the same. All the power of Christians is within.

Christians themselves cannot help but perceive this difference and change, not to the detriment of their humility, but to the glory of God who saves them. Not everything is lost in man through the fall. Traces of his former beauty remain in all his powers, only they have been scattered and broken apart. This is like a broken mirror. When the inner order of spiritual life is restored, it is like a whole mirror that clearly reflects all the features and parts of the face of one looking into it. Turning inward, can the Christian fail to perceive in himself this wholeness granted to him? Before baptism, a man is like one paralyzed in all his parts: he can neither stand nor move. After baptism, he is like that healed man of whom it is said that he walked, “«leaping and praising God»” (Acts 3:8). Thus the feeling of vigor and strength of powers that belongs to the Christian engraced in baptism must surely testify itself in his consciousness.

And here is one more image. Telescopes have three components. When one slides these components inside each other, the telescope does not show things as it should, but when they are extended proportionally, everything is then seen clearly in them. The telescope is an image of our threefold nature: spirit, soul, and body. In the fall, spirit was subject to soul, and soul and spirit to body, and man began to see his relationships poorly and to conduct himself poorly in them. In the new gracious birth, spirit is restored to its rights, holds soul in its proper place, and through it also controls the body. Man then receives the predestined ordering of the parts of his nature, clearly perceives his relationships to heaven and earth, and conducts himself worthily in these relationships. Can such a restoration be hidden from the eyes of reason and conscience?!

Do you see now what the power of holy baptism is and how the saving action of it in us cannot be hidden from the eyes of our reason?! Now look into yourself and decide for yourself: is there in you what holy baptism gives, or not? If there is—let us give thanks to the Lord, though without self-exaltation, for all is from Him; if there is not—let us accuse ourselves, rebuke ourselves, and hasten to restore it through the Mystery of repentance, in which sinners are baptized again, not in a font, but in tears, though they receive a new life as real as that given in the font. Amen.

The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

Recall the conversation I gave you before. There we saw that the believer must come forth from the font of baptism as a zealot for pleasing God alone, with readiness to sacrifice all for this. This ardor of zeal for God, joined with love and self-denial, constitutes such an inseparable characteristic of Christian life that he who possesses it lives; he who lacks it is either dead or sleeps, numb. This is the seed of life and, at the same time, the vital force. It is the fruit of the union of grace with freedom. A man wholly entrusts himself to God’s guidance; grace, coming to him, receives him, fills him, unites with him, and from this hidden treasury of life there emerges a man of “«renewal»” (1 Pet. 2:9), a “«zealot for good works»” (Tit. 2:14), chosen to be “«holy and blameless»” before God “«in love»” (Eph. 1:4).

When adults are baptized, they indeed become such immediately after baptism, for they themselves then present all the necessary dispositions of heart for union with grace. As for those baptized in infancy, divine providence in our salvation was pleased to establish such an order: all that pertains to implanting in us the beginning of Christian life depends on God’s grace and is given at once, and the renewal is accomplished by grace; what depends on our freedom is deferred until the age of reason, until the first confession and communion, when man consciously and willingly entrusts himself to grace, and then the renewal that was accomplished before, as if independently of him, by grace alone, is appropriated to his person and begins to be accomplished jointly with grace and freedom. Then he too appears strengthened by God’s grace as a zealot for pleasing God alone in Christian fashion, with complete self-denial.

Everyone knows that until this crucial moment in life, almost everything depends on parents and sponsors, and afterward on them and on our freedom; and further on those many various relationships in life into which the inscrutable mixture of circumstances places each person. From the influences upon our consciousness and freedom of all these forces, and from how we use them, it comes about that for some everything is light, for others everything is darkness, for still others neither light nor darkness… By this I mean that some, after a beautiful childhood and youth, coming to consciousness, love Christianity with a strong love and zealously pursue it unwavering, ascending from strength to strength and striving to reach “«the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ»” (Eph. 4:13); others turn from the Lord into the way of passions, into bondage to the spirit of the world and its prince, and live in forgetfulness of God and in godless ways; still others—one does not know to whom they belong—not quite to Christ, not quite to the world; outwardly they participate in all the institutions of Christian life, yet in their thoughts and heart they are drawn elsewhere, and place their comfort, pleasure, and happiness in other things. These are Christians without the Spirit of Christ! They do not care about the Lord, but about one thing alone—how to live peacefully and comfortably on earth, amid all the institutions to which they happen to be set by circumstance, without appearing foreign to Christian order and without declaring themselves to be avowed opponents of Christ and Christianity.

Thus, if we look back and wish honestly to determine what we are in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom exclusively we undertook to serve in holy baptism, some will turn out to be zealous lovers of the Lord and of Christian life, others devoted to the world and the passions—enemies of Christ; still others—outward Christians with worldly hearts.

To which of these shall I now address my words?

The first do not need words. We can only, following them, glorify the Lord and bless them… Blessed are you who have heeded the Lord’s call!.. You “«walk in the light of His” face “and rejoice in His name»” all the day (Ps. 88:16-17), crying: “«my heart has failed” in You, O God, “God of my heart»” and my God! (Ps. 72:26)

To the second, what words can reach them, when they are not here and never come?.. They have completely turned away into the destructive path. We can only grieve for them and pray.

Therefore, my words are to you—outward Christians, without the Spirit of Christ, without a heart wholly devoted to the Lord, without zeal for pleasing Him alone!.. Or not only to you, but to us together, for I am the first among you.

What shall we say to ourselves? Ah, brothers, let us force ourselves to rise to a feeling of danger for ourselves and our eternal destiny… Consider what all the true lovers of God say of us—those still here on earth and those already in heaven. What else could they say but the following: «Here are people who seem to be of us, but are not ours.» A simple statement it seems, but what a terrible word! For if we are not theirs, then they are not ours, and nothing of theirs is ours. Thus Christ is not ours, nor are all His promises ours, nor is Paradise ours, nor eternal blessedness. And if this is not ours, you yourselves know what must be ours?! See what a calamity! Meanwhile, look around you—we have almost everything Christian: Christian institutions, Christian ideas, Christian speech, many Christian rules and deeds!.. What is lacking?.. What is lacking is the Christian heart. It is not turned toward Him… its good is not in God, but in itself and in the world, and its paradise is not in heaven, but on earth. What is lacking is this firm, as death, zeal for pleasing God and for salvation. We seem to have fallen asleep and gone numb… and we move as the current of life carries us. Let us awaken this very zeal in ourselves, for who else will do it?! We ourselves have become bound to the world, and we ourselves must tear ourselves from it.

Let us approach our cold, negligent, and careless heart and begin to persuade it kindly to come to its senses at last, to cast off the bonds of the passions and the world that it has willingly placed upon itself, and to turn toward the Lord. Let us speak to our soul thus: «You were created in the image and likeness of God. The infinite God so ordained you that He might shine in you with His perfections, as the sun shines in a tiny drop of water, and be visible in you—both to you and to all who see you, earthly and heavenly. Yet you have turned away from God and have turned toward the world, have received its vile form, and thereby have come to bear the bestial likeness of the prince of this age. Remember your first nobility, great and incomparable, regret your present deformity, and turn toward the Lord, that you may be renewed in the image of your Creator.

God seeks you and, seeking, surrounds you with all His mercies and care: your life is His, and all that is necessary for life is His as well: the light, the air, the food, the clothing, the dwelling, and all that is in you and with you are His. And is this all? For your sake He descended from heaven, suffered, died on the Cross, rose again, ascended to heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, and established the Church on earth, in which He has united all that is necessary for your salvation, and chiefly—by the way of your birth, by the order of your outward life, He has already brought you into this treasury of spiritual goods!.. See how much love! And for all this He asks of you but one thing: your heart. And a drop of water warmed by the sun rises up… Yet you—why do you delay turning to the Lord, warmed on all sides by the warmth of His love?!.

Do you not see that all around you are going toward the Lord—the poor, the lowly, the unlearned. Why do you stand still, allowing all to go before you into the Kingdom?! Is it as if you were worse than others? Are you hindered by something?! Are you deprived of something that is given to all?! Why do you stand still?! Stir yourself, hasten, while the door is still open, which still receives all who turn now.

Why do you stand still? Turn to the Lord and begin to serve Him earnestly… Time passes… the powers weaken, grow coarse, and approach immobility in their perverted direction. Meanwhile, now, tomorrow—death. See, lest you remain in this hardened coldness toward the Lord. Remember the terrible end, when God will finally turn away from those who do not turn to Him and will reject those who reject Him—and be moved by fear to turn toward the Lord.

Seek the Lord! God or the world… there is no middle ground. Or are you sleeping so carelessly that you see nothing?! There is everything; here is nothing; there is truth, here is phantom; there is peace, here are futile cares; there is contentment, here is ceaseless yearning; there is joy and gladness, here only sorrow and grief of heart. All this you know, have experienced, and yet you remain in the same vain preoccupations of mind and heart… You wish to establish paradise on earth… the eighth thousand years have passed since the world-lovers have exhausted themselves in the effort to establish paradise on earth… And not only is there no success, but on the contrary—everything moves toward the worse… you too will not succeed, but only exhaust yourself, chasing the phantom good of the world, like children chasing a fleeting rainbow.»

With such and similar words let us persuade our soul to love the Lord wholly and turn toward Him, having finally developed a decisive zeal for our salvation. May not the same thing happen to us that happens to air balloons… Filled with gas, the finest element, with what speed they soar upward! Let us also fill our soul with heavenly truths and convictions. They will penetrate into the heart, will draw forth our desires, and there our whole being will be drawn toward heaven and all things heavenly.

Nevertheless, what soul does not know all this? All of us know that we must belong exclusively to the Lord in heart and turn all our cares to pleasing Him alone—the small and the great. But when the time comes to move to action—to detach ourselves from all—we begin to offer various excuses to remain in our attachments… «How can we!» they say, «This high life belongs only to the chosen ones… We at least somehow… Whoever is chosen is also especially called… Look at the Apostle Paul… and others like him, visibly called.» To this I say: but did not these chosen ones themselves go in response to the Lord’s call? Did grace perhaps drag them along by force? They heard the word, obeyed, and turned toward the Lord… Let there be, however, some special chosen ones… and for them all is special… But there is also a common path for all. Let us walk by this common path…

In general, all of us are chosen. Once the word of truth has touched our ear, it means we are chosen… The Lord calls us, and we are accountable if we do not follow Him. See how others turned… One heard: “«do not store up treasures on earth»” (Matt. 6:19) and gave up all… Another read: “«in vain does man toil and gather, knowing not for whom»” (Ps. 38:7), abandoned vanity, and entered upon the firm path of pleasing God. A third looked upon a crucifix with the inscription: «See what I have done for you; what are you doing for Me?..» and with all his heart gave himself to the Lord… Is this something extraordinary?! Why, every day we hear and read a thousand similar truths… Can we after this consider ourselves uncalled?.. No, brothers, the matter is not with the calling, but with us.

How did these who turned around come to turn? They realized that there is no life but in the Lord, and they changed their unseemly life. Thus it should be for all. The inward change or reversal depends on our conscientiousness in relation to the truth we have perceived. And this conscientiousness always depends on us… let us apply it and we shall conquer ourselves… Into the inner sanctuary of the heart no one else will enter… There man decides all things with his conscience and his awareness… Let us stand before God in our hearts and, vividly recalling all that God desires and realizing the inevitability and urgency of this for our salvation, let us lay this covenant in our heart: «From now on I will belong entirely to the Lord in heart and will serve Him alone with all my strength.» And our election will be accomplished, for election is the union of our decision with God’s calling.

“«The Lord is near»” (Phil. 4:5). He comes to all and knocks at the heart—will anyone not open?! If the heart is a closed vessel, who is to blame?! The blame for all is our conscientiousness toward the truth we have learned. If this did not exist, all would be forever turned toward the Lord. And does much require us?! After all, we do not completely reject the Lord. Only pleasing Him does not stand first with us… it is not our chief work, but merely an appendage. Our work is pleasing ourselves, pleasing people and worldly customs. Put pleasing the Lord first and rebuild all else according to the demands of this single goal—and your inward disposition will change… Everything will remain the same… only the heart will become new. That is all! Is this much?!«

Much more would I like to say to you on the same subject, but I see that I have wearied you. The rest your souls will say to yourselves. For who but we ourselves can help the Lord take possession of our hearts?.. Oh, if only we would submit to Him and give Him our hearts, and face to face behold Him in ourselves, and all revolve in His light around Him, as all the heavenly bodies revolve around the sun, turned toward it and illuminated by it, composing their own orderly choir! Amen.

Our Peace Is a False Peace: Is Our Conversion Complete?

It is written in the Gospel of a certain rich young man who sought salvation and could not find it (Matt. 19:16-22). This young man wished to be saved and did something toward his salvation; but he had certain attachments which, as his conscience told him, were incompatible with the work of salvation. Hearing of the Savior, he sought conversation with Him, perhaps hoping to find in His teaching some justification for his secret misguided attitudes. «Perhaps,» he thought, «it is enough for salvation to do only those works that I do, and God will not condemn me for the wrongs that are in my heart.» As you know, he was mistaken in his hope. The Savior said to him such words that he departed from Him “«grieving»”. The Lord demanded of him as a sacrifice precisely what he wished to keep for himself. The young man had “«great possessions»” (Matt. 19:22), enjoyed them, and all that was connected with them: contentment, a visible position among others, honors, a certain degree of authority, and the ability to do through others and in the midst of others whatever he wished. He also performed good works, but they cost him nothing; their performance required no sacrifices from him. The Lord saw at first glance what infected the young man’s soul. Therefore, lightly touching upon what he did, He brought the full weight of His Divine determination down upon what he wished to hide in himself—upon his attachment to his possessions… He said: You have kept all the commandments… now, “«if you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven»”; abandon all, “«come and follow Me»” (Matt. 19:21).

To have treasure in heaven—what could be more precious? And yet the young man “«went away grieving»”… apparently because what he had on earth was dearer to him than what was promised in heaven. Meanwhile, we cannot say that he neglected salvation. All his trouble consisted in that he did not have complete conversion to God. He wished to save his soul and did not wish to cease loving the things of the world, yet these two things are incompatible… Where the Lord is, there is nothing worldly. And where there is something worldly, there is nothing of the Lord.

Having such an example of God’s disapproval of incomplete conversion to Him, let us turn, brothers, to ourselves and examine whether our conversion is complete. And if it is not, let us strive to make it complete. Are we so detached from everything that we can call ourselves ready at every moment for all that the Lord may require? And if we are not, let us take care to raise our detachment to that degree. For this is the chief thing—to offer everything in sacrifice to God’s will. When such a transformation has been accomplished within us, then our conversion is full and will encounter no obstacle in showing ourselves perfect, and the Lord in recognizing us as such in our deeds. Like a bird not bound and not enclosed in a cage, which flies freely through the air, so he who has wholly detached himself from the attractions of the world freely, unobstructed, acts in the realm of God’s will. But he who keeps some attachment in himself is free only so long as his deeds do not touch upon that attachment. As soon as the Lord requires it as a sacrifice, he becomes troubled, constrained, and then, like the young man, he departs from the Lord, although he departs grieving.

If one looks at the young man and those like him from the outside, one can pity them, saying: «See, how much they labored, and all for nothing!…» But if one were to analyze them truly, it would turn out that they never labored at all. The very first labor is the one before which they turn back. Sin, living in us or, rather, acting through it via the enemy, is very cunning and knows how to hide beneath the brightest respectability… It is known to all that each of us may have many disapproved dispositions and inclinations; but there are always one or two dominant ones around which all the others cluster. When the desire for salvation flares up, conscience demands to uproot all that is wrong, sparing ourselves no pain or regard for the sorrows of our heart. The inner work begins. The conscientious readily offer everything in sacrifice to the Lord. But souls that limp on both feet and suffer from self-pity, although they renounce much which costs them little, always keep for themselves what chiefly feeds their self-will, and thereby spoil everything. They think they have done much, but in reality they have done nothing; they think that with such and such deeds it is not very important to have some trait of sin-loving or world-loving, but in reality for them personally in this small thing lies all the sin and all the world.

As a tree, when many of its roots are cut but one is left, still lives and blooms and bears fruit, so sin and the world in us live wholly, although it seems we serve them only in a small way… And here is what comes of this: as one rootlet of ivy, spreading, entangles the whole tree and sometimes strangles it, so sin, remaining in us in any way, with its spirit fills our entire life and all our deeds, defiles them and makes them worthless in the eyes of God. Then the very deeds that are performed as if to please the Lord become instruments of the passion we nurture in ourselves—that is, piety becomes an instrument of sin and worldliness, and the appearance of serving God becomes a cover for unGodly deeds. And it turns out that we are fruit, fair to look upon, with rottenness or worm-eating inside. There are many people who love the world with a calm conscience. Fear of perdition forces them to do some deeds according to the commandments, while self-pity keeps them in service to the world and sin. They think they have improved, but in reality they are what the Lord says: “«neither hot” nor “cold, …therefore I will vomit you out of My mouth»” (Rev. 3:16). May the Lord spare us from this calamity!

Cain brought a sacrifice to God… and God paid no attention to it. Why? Because he offered what was not dear to him. Abraham is renowned throughout all the world as the father of believers because, at God’s requirement, he was ready to offer—indeed, offered in his heart to God—his beloved son, his only-begotten, he offered what was more precious to him than anything… God requires such sacrifices from each of us as well… And rightly! He Himself has done all for us and does so. It is not enough that He created us, preserves us, and provides for us. But when it was time to arrange our salvation, He did not employ some insignificant creation for this, but sent His only-begotten Son into the world, not to act here with power, but to be humiliated, tormented, and given up to death. After such a Sacrifice on the Lord’s part for us, before what sacrifice can we lawfully hold back for the Lord’s sake?! Those who in a hidden corner of the heart hide some idol of world-loving or sin-loving think perhaps that their cunning will not become known to anyone. True, Rachel succeeded in hiding the idol she had stolen from her father’s search. But how can one hide from the all-trying and all-seeing eye of God? We live and act before the face of God. Or perhaps someone thinks that what he withholds from worldly attachments and sinful habits is insignificant? But let everyone stand in his conscience before God and without distortion and concealment reason: when we are unwilling for the Lord’s sake to give up anything, this means the same as if we said to Him: «This is for You, and this is for me.» How can one do this when it is clear to us that He requires from us all, requires also what we withhold for ourselves? However insignificant may be what we keep in our heart from the world, yet as soon as we quarrel with God because of it, oppose Him, resist Him, then we are complete enemies of God. Worse: if we deny obedience to God for the sake of attachment to something, then that object of attachment is dearer to us than God. If dearer than God, then it is our god, for what is dearest to the heart, that is its god. Thus we have a god—what is not God—and we are idolaters… Is this little?

Would it not be better, brothers, after this to stop counting our world-loving attachments as insignificant and instead take care to awaken our sleeping conscience and compel it to zealously pursue complete detachment from all. Our peace, if we truly have peace, is a false peace. The righteous Lord will place us in such circumstances that all our inner self will be troubled, and the deviations of our heart will be revealed before all.

All this I offer to your love of wisdom, so that, having entered into yourselves, you may judge yourselves and ready yourselves as a gift to the Lord, our Savior, to offer and indeed to offer in deed all those beloved things displeasing to Him and your treasures, review and correct all the irregularities and wrongs of the heart that hide beneath external good order the worldly goals and passions, so that you may present yourselves to God as “«a pure virgin, …having no stain, or wrinkle, or any such thing»” (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:27). Amen.

Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

I remind you of one consoling Gospel narrative. The Lord approaches Jericho. There, by the way, sat a blind man. Hearing that the Lord was near, he began to cry out: “«Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!»” (Lk. 18:38)

Others wanted to silence him, but he cried out irrepressibly from his strong faith: “«Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!»” The Lord heard his cry and healed him.

Let us bless the Lord who heard the blind man’s cry, and let us also praise the blind man who did not cease calling out to Him for help. Thus we have, brothers, a pattern of our salvation, a pattern of how a soul is delivered from spiritual blindness, from the darkness of sin, and from all the bonds of world-loving and passion that bind it. The soul seeks and cries out, but as long as the Lord does not come to its aid, its eyes will not be opened and its bonds will not fall. “Without Me,” says the Lord, “you can do nothing»” (Jn. 15:5) The Christian can do all, but only “«through Him who strengthens” him» (Phil. 4:13), for grace, coming to him, accomplishes in him “«both the will and the doing according to His good pleasure»” (Phil. 2:13)

Do not be afraid when you hear that spiritual enlightenment and freedom from the bonds of the world and sin, or in other words, complete turning of the heart to the Lord, is the work of grace, thinking that it is somehow far away… On the contrary, rejoice in this, for what is from the Lord is near, just as the Lord Himself is the God who is near to all, not far away. From the Lord all is always ready for us; we need only apply what depends on us.

From us is expected fervent desire, seeking, and self-compulsion toward detachment from all and turning to the Lord. But let no one think that when all this is present in him, all that is sought has been attained. No; but when all this is present, grace must come and accomplish the detachment and turning by deed. The prisoner earnestly desires freedom, seeks it, and makes an effort to obtain it… But he remains in bonds as long as the one who has authority to loose does not come and does not loose him. The same is with us… The enemy has bound us with strong bonds through the passions and the world. When we come to realize this bondage and feel its unbearableness and destructiveness, we begin to desire freedom, seek it, and exert ourselves to obtain it; but despite all this, we remain in these bonds until the Lord comes, “«mighty»”, and binds, as He Himself said, the one who holds us in bonds, does not loose us, and does not set us free (Lk. 11:21-22). Here is a tree planted firmly in the soil with many deep roots. If it desired freedom, it could not obtain it otherwise than when a strong hand, drawing near, would tear it from the depths of the earth. Deep and many-branched have we become rooted in the world and its customs… Perhaps we have already felt the burden and destructiveness of this, but we cannot tear ourselves out until God Himself tears us out, until God, coming, delivers us from the power of darkness and brings us “«into the Kingdom of His beloved Son»” (Col. 1:13)

Someone will say: «What precisely must I do to attain such grace?» Do you desire to be loosed from the world and to be with Christ alone—first of all apply to this desire all sincerity and strength, as far as it depends on you, and at the same time begin to seek grace, sparing yourself nothing. Where to seek? In all that which God was pleased to conceal grace for us, as in vessels of some kind… This is in the whole institution of our Holy Church and all its orders, and above all in the holy Mysteries—confession and holy communion. For this, go to the Church of God whenever you have the possibility, pray earnestly at home, read holy books, engage in spiritual conversations whenever you can, undertake some ascetical labor—in fasting, vigil, solitude, in labors of helping your neighbor, don’t scatter yourself, don’t be vain, don’t seek empty glory and the applause of men; withdraw into yourself and approach the Lord in your heart; and above all make a proper fast, confess as you should, and receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Thus seek, and you will find, as the Lord has promised. Thus knock, and it will be opened to you! (Matt. 7:7) All is from the Lord; but receive it all only those who earnestly and without sparing themselves, seek… Let it be difficult; but it is consoling that they will certainly find… Grace will come at last, and then the soul, like a bird freed from snares, will freely begin to soar in the realm of the Kingdom of Christ.

Only do not be lazy in seeking, and seek precisely where you can find—that is, in the Church and in Church institutions. Those do badly who seek the Lord, as it were, while being alien from the Holy Church of God and all that is Church, or who hold to it only in part, as if by chance, without trust in the essential necessity of this order of life. No, you will not find the Lord and His grace outside the Church. Outside the Church is the world, the kingdom of the enemy of Christ and of us… There one finds destruction, not saving grace… The Church of God, wholly and in all its parts filled with grace, is a vessel or a collection of vessels of grace.

Have you heard of a substance called electricity? When it is aroused in something or fills a thing, then that thing becomes a vessel of electricity, and whoever touches it, from it a spark comes and makes a sensitive blow on the finger or on that part with which you touch it. Imagine if someone constructed a whole house full of this substance and then filled every thing in the house with it, so that whoever entered and touched anything, from everything would receive a spark and a blow—thus God has arranged the Church: He has filled it wholly and filled all in it with grace, so that those who seek through everything Church-related can receive it. One word converts, another—singing, one icon moves, another—the sacred service… one is moved by something great, another by something small; but in all cases the action is one: like a blow of some kind, it strikes the heart, and from that moment it becomes different, receives as it were a pledge or earnest, by virtue of which, having detached itself from the world, it begins to live in the Lord alone. Thus, if you desire to be freed from the world and to be with Christ alone—sincerely desire this and, sparing yourself not, begin to seek, going through all the orders and institutions of the Holy Church, under these clouds, as it were, that hold the waters of grace, and you will find. The minute will come when God opens your eyes, as it were takes you by the hand from the power of darkness, and brings you “«into the Kingdom of His beloved Son»”

Whether your seeking will be long or short is not our matter to determine. There is an eye that watches your labor and waits with impatience for you to finally enter into that state in which grace can act fully upon you. Wait and endure patiently in your labors of seeking. As in outward nature—let us use the same comparison—electricity mentioned above does not act upon every body, but only upon those predisposed for it, so also in the spiritual world, until the necessary dispositions are formed in our spirit for receiving grace, grace is not poured out into it, lest it be poured out uselessly. The chief obstacle, as I have already reminded you, is our insincerity toward the truth we have perceived. We know that the world is incompatible with Christ, yet when we intend to enter upon the path of following Christ or have already entered upon it, we regret some things and attachments and drag them along with us, as if in defiance of the unbreakable determination of the Lord that one cannot “«serve God and mammon»” (Matt. 6:24) The Lord sees our heart now in world-loving, now in love of God—that is, half-worldly and half-Christian—and does not entrust Himself and His grace to it, just as the master, having eyes, will not pour water or anything else into a cracked vessel. No, one must completely detach the heart from the world and be alien to it, although sometimes necessity forces external participation in its affairs. This turning away is what the Lord waits for, and

He Himself hastens to accomplish it in us through the influence of His Divine regard upon the heart, so that then He might fill us with Himself. But He will not accomplish it without us. We ourselves must desire aversion and turning away from the world and must compel ourselves to this.

The Kingdom of God can be compared with this!

Imagine a broad valley full of diverse vegetation. In the middle—a beautiful house in which dwells a prince of beauty, wisdom, power, and inestimable riches… From the house rays extend outward like paths, which the farther they go from the house, the more they become interwoven and intertwined with one another. Despite this intertwining, however, all of them can lead to the house—that is, they do not represent lost paths. But at the far reaches of the valley, paths begin to appear that intermingle with paths foreign to these, leading not to the house but in the opposite direction, beyond the bounds of this blessed royal valley. Along all the paths walks a multitude of people. They all go toward the prince, who promises to those who reach him eternal rejoicing with him in his house, dwelling, and pleasures beyond number. The prince sees all who go and all the labors that each undertakes in this journey. But only those who enter upon the paths not mingled with foreign ones begin to see and feel him… and the farther they advance toward the house, the more clearly they see the prince; and at last his face so becomes impressed upon them that they wholly disappear in him, in a sense dissolve through consciousness, forgetting themselves, for he is all sweetness. Those, however, who walk upon the mixed paths know that the prince exists, but do not see him, desire him but do not taste him, seek him but do not possess him. To them, rather, reach the loud celebrations from the kingdom hostile to the prince, and occupy them, and they walk, now stepping onto the prince’s path, now onto the enemy’s, and incline now toward the prince’s house, now in the opposite direction. Of these, some, having wandered about here a while, completely stray into the enemy’s realm; others, little by little advancing, step onto the unmixed paths and turn toward the prince’s house; a third group did not wish to go to the enemy, nor hastened to the house, but have seemingly resolved to wander here to the end of life, considering themselves the prince’s and not belonging to him by their deeds. Those who, passing by the mixed paths, step onto the unmixed ones, for the first time encounter the bright eyes of the prince, from which there is poured into their heart an insatiable fire of zeal for swift journeying. Here the bewitching effect of the enemy’s calls ceases…

I do not find it necessary to explain this comparison at length; it should be clear to you. Blessed are those who have crossed the mixed paths! These are those completely detached from the world. Wretched are those who have gone to the opposing side! These are those wholly given over to the world and the enemy. Those walking the mixed paths may be blessed or wretched.

Those wandering on these paths are those who have not yet completely detached from the world and remain here either because they are passing through a period of detachment, which requires time and does not occur suddenly in everyone, or because through deceptive self-pity they do not wish to completely part with the world, but think to somehow enjoy both the world and the portion of Christ. The latter are awaiting the wretched fate of those whom the Lord threatens with judgment: “neither hot” nor cold» (Rev. 3:15). But to the first it should be said: why delay, chasing after phantoms? Enter more boldly into the paths of detachment. The prince already sees you and desires you. Leave these mixed paths—enter the unmixed ones. There your eyes will meet the eyes of the prince… From them fire will descend into your heart and inflame it with all-sufficient love and zeal for journeying to his house, knowing no rest and no weariness…

And thus we come again to what we came to before—that one must completely detach oneself from the world and all that is worldly, so as to be with Christ.

Begin therefore, brothers, “«thus to run, that you may take hold»” (1 Cor. 9:24). May the Lord bless your beginning and prosper you in your labors, whatever you are able to do!

Amen.

Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

“«Seek… first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness»” (Matt. 6:33).

Following this divine commandment, I now wish to speak to you of the same thing—of the complete turning of our hearts toward the Lord.

Although this is the most ordinary subject, for what is more ordinary than the thought: «Detach yourself from everything and seek the Lord alone, in whom is the fullness of goods»—yet as He, perhaps more than any other, is forgotten, just as the thought of the sun, so necessary for us and constantly illuminating us, is forgotten, it is necessary to keep reminding about Him, and not only to point out, but also to manifest this sun on the spiritual horizon of our soul. Our consciousness and our heart should not be drawn away from what is chief. And where the heart is, the discourse is sweet and it is sweet to listen, even if it be continuous. So do not grow weary.

“«Seek… first the Kingdom of God»”. “«Seek first…»”—that is, in the series of your cares and concerns, seeking the Kingdom of God must stand first. This must be your chief work; all else must be an appendage, must follow this as its fruit and addition.

What then is the Kingdom of God? It is the reign of God. Where is this Kingdom? This “«Kingdom of God is within you»”, the Lord legislates (Lk. 17:21). Therefore, the Kingdom of God is the reign of God within you, and seeking the Kingdom of God is seeking that God might reign within us. Over what? Over all that is in us—over our thoughts, desires, feelings, intentions, deeds—seeking that God might become the King of our mind, heart, and will… God is the King of our mind when the mind, through obedience to faith, having assimilated to itself all that has been communicated to us in holy revelation, thinks only of the one God and judges all that exists and comes to be according to God. God is the King of our will and conscience when, having impressed in ourselves the commandments of God and made them an unbreakable law for ourselves, we allow ourselves neither small nor great to deviate by even a hair’s breadth from the perceived will of God. God is the God of our heart when, having experienced the sweetness of the Divine, it rejects all earthly sweetness and, finding no taste in anything earthly, lives entirely in heaven, where its treasure is.

Thus it happens “«within»”. But the Kingdom of God extends also outward… For when all that is said occurs within us, then all external things are likewise restructured according to the same spirit and direction; then the spirit begins to act through tongue and eyes and hearing and all other senses; then the same spirit directs all external movement and all action—in solitude, in the family, in office, in society, and in all life relationships… In short, then in all the manifestations of our inner and outer life God becomes the tangible guide, which is impressed upon the attention of all, according to the Lord’s word: “«thus let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven»” (Matt. 5:16)

He in whom God has reigned within you see participating in all deeds to which his position binds him; but in them he is only outward, inward he is wholly in God, from whom issue for him the directives for all deeds and undertakings, their number, scope, and manner of fulfillment. In such is truly fulfilled what the Apostle commanded: “«those who have wives be as though they had none; and those who weep be as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice be as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy be as though they did not possess; and those who use the world be as though they did not use it»” (1 Cor. 7:29-31).

Thus in him who seeks the Kingdom of God and finds it, “God” becomes “all in all»” (1 Cor. 15:28); so that just as in heaven He rests upon the Cherubim and Seraphim, so He rests in him upon all the powers of his spirit, which itself, dissolving in Him through consciousness and self-activity, directs all—inwardly and outwardly—toward pleasing Him alone, having loved Him as commanded—with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your thought, and with all your strength (Mark 12:30; Lk. 10:27).

To this thought I bring to your mind one circumstance from the Old Testament history. In God’s people it often happened that one, two, and more kings in succession arose who, carried away by pagan customs, introduced idolatry and worshipped idols in their own lands. Then idols appeared in great number—on hills, in groves, in city squares, and even in the temple itself. They were served, and the service of the true God was forgotten. But when God raised up a king after His own heart, such as Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, and others, he made it his first task to purify the temple, the city, all the hills and groves, and all the kingdom from idols. Impiety was driven away, piety shone forth. The one true God was honored and worshipped in the temple, and in the city, and in the villages, and in the fields. God was visibly the King among them.

Something similar happens in us. Each of us is a small kingdom. The king is we ourselves—our consciousness and self-will. The subjects are the powers of our being—the powers of body, soul, and spirit. The sanctuary of God in us is the heart. When our king—our consciousness and freedom—turns away from God and inclines toward itself and creatures, then the heart becomes filled with the passions and perverse inclinations as if with some idols; every power of soul and body becomes the temple of worship of its own particular idol… God is forgotten. We serve then, in the body, for example, sensuality, sloth, lust, sleep, cursing in dances, revelries, theaters, and such things, as pagans served Venus, Bacchus, and others. In the soul we serve vainglory, pleasing men, envy, anger, hatred, the interests of a passion to shine, to please, and such things, from which all compose themselves into the idol of self-will and hardened egoism—that is, we become universally idolatrous and serve foreign gods with all our powers. We are in God-forgetfulness, God-aversion, God-enmity. But when the mercy of God finally meets us and sends the spirit of fear and reverence, our king—our consciousness and freedom—awakens and, turning toward God, zealously begins to purify its kingdom from all idols, drives the passions from all its powers, and, in their place, imprints corresponding virtues, so as to please God, having determined to serve Him alone to the end of my life; then in our sanctuary there dwells not self-will, but self-denial and devotion to God, and in soul and body instead of the passions—the holy fruits of the Spirit: humility, meekness, temperance, purity, love, peace, patience, diligence, and so forth, and all this for God’s sake, for pleasing Him, in the sense of complete dependence on Him and the obligation of conscience—all things direct according to His will and to His glory. Then godliness, love of God, devotion to God, worship of God are restored in us. God reigns in us, and all that is opposed to God—small or great, inward or outward—is driven out and destroyed. Behold the reign of God in us!

Let no one think: «All divine and all is God… and nothing else… nothing of the goods of the world around us… How is this hard, dry, joyless!..» On the contrary, it is here that we have our place, our station, our paradise, when we turn toward God and direct all toward pleasing Him alone. For when this happens on our part, then God does not remain a distant observer of these changes within us, but Himself descends to us and unites Himself with our soul. And where God is, there is blessedness. Like a bridegroom and bride who love each other mutually, so blessed are the souls that through dedication to God have united themselves with Him. One need only strictly observe the conditions of this union and its obligations. The Apostle said: “«I am jealous for you” (the believers, the newly converted) “with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ»” (2 Cor. 11:2). You know the feelings of a bride toward her bridegroom?! Such should be the feelings of our souls toward Christ the Lord. To a bride then it never occurs to gaze at anything else; only the bridegroom fills her thoughts and feelings. So should we be disposed toward the Lord. And even with the thought of inclining toward anything else but Him is already a breach of the bridal union with Him—not to mention in feelings and dispositions. “«Your God… is a jealous God»”, says the prophet (Deut. 4:24). As a husband or bridegroom is jealous, so is God jealous of our souls. He cannot bear that we incline our hearts toward anything but Him. But just as a wife or bride, although by the law of cohabitation she is in good relations with all, yet her heart is given to the husband or bridegroom alone, so should the soul—let her occupy herself with all that she cannot fail to occupy herself with by the conditions of life, but her inward turning must be wholly directed to the one God. A bridegroom or husband does not distinguish whether it is a large or small person toward whom his wife or bride wishes to incline, but he does not tolerate the very inclination toward anyone, whosoever it may concern. So also God is angry at a soul that nourishes attachment to anything great or small. And all this He sees. A bride may somehow hide her unfaithfulness from her bridegroom, but one cannot hide anything from God. All He sees—and He is not indifferent to the betrayals of our hearts… And He sends punishment straightaway—by cutting short the outpouring of His generosity into the soul, which with this inclination from God begins to experience darkening in thought, disorder in desire, disturbance in feeling… and this if the inclination is small! What then is to be said of the great?! Then the Lord departs… abandons the soul… divorces Himself from it. But when the Lord does not unite Himself with the soul, then yourselves know—who does… May the Lord spare us all from this calamity!

Thus, brothers, for not the first time I turn my discourse to this: we must not in part, but entirely submit ourselves to the Lord and entrust ourselves to Him, so that you, if you do not bend your will to this, at the very least in spirit say to yourselves in your soul: «There is no other way; it is necessary to seek the Lord and to turn toward Him alone with all our being. Only one thing remains: either destruction or this. One cannot “«serve God and mammon»” (Matt. 6:24). “«He who is not with Me” is, said the Lord, “that one” “against” “Me” “is”; “and he who does not gather with Me scatters»” (Lk. 11:23)

Do not be afraid! Hold in mind one thing: such an ordering of life is not violence, but escape to freedom; it is not sorrow, but blessedness; it is not deprivation, but entry into the fullness of well-being. And, holding this in mind, stir yourselves accordingly to the deed.

May the Lord send courage to your hearts and strength to your spirit. Amen.

On Gracious Choice

Last time you heard of the Kingdom of God, which is within you (Lk. 17:21). But is there no Kingdom outside us?! There is, and there is. Open the martyrologies and read: today is the feast of such-and-such a saint, tomorrow of such-and-such, the day after of such-and-such… and so forth every day has its saint. In their totality, here are placed all who have pleased God from age to age—the patriarchs, the fathers, the prophets, the apostles, the hierarchs, the martyrs and martyresses, the venerable fathers and mothers, the unmercenary workers, those who became fools for Christ’s sake. A multitude great beyond measure! All of them rejoice in heaven, pray for us, and help us. This is one part of the Kingdom of God that is outside us—the Church of the firstborn, written in heaven.

Descending from there to earth, we see how, under their benevolent and prayerful influence, here also in the Church of God those who truly believe are born again by God’s grace, mature, and ascend “«to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ»” (Eph. 4:13), so that, having lived like them on earth, they may be glorified like them in heaven. Thus from those and these, heavenly and earthly together, is composed the gracious Kingdom of Christ, the Church of the saved in the Lord, the object of God’s blessings and the goal of the desire of all people who truly understand their significance.

Tearing your attention from this blessed vision of the Kingdom of God, now look around you at what is happening, and you will see that in opposition to this Kingdom of Christ stands another kingdom—the kingdom of the prince of this age, composed of all who love the world and sin, both departed and living, upheld and maintained by the malicious malevolence of our age-old enemy, in defiance of the gracious care of the Lord for us, to our deception, temptation, and destruction.

Here are two kingdoms!

All of us living on earth are inevitably under the influence of both of them and—now incline toward one or the other, now stand between them as if in uncertainty, toward which side to lean and where to turn.

This is what has come to my mind now, and I feel compelled to say to you, brothers, a law well known to all: “«Do not love the world, nor what is in the world»” (1 Jn. 2:15), “«come out from the midst” of the world-lovers “and the uncleanness” of them “do not touch»” (2 Cor. 6:17).

I would like, however, that you yourselves make such a good choice or turn of your own will. For this reason I wish to show you the opposition between the characteristic traits of the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the prince of this age. I do not think that any of you are unaware of the truth and salvation of the former and the falsehood and destruction of the latter. But on the supposition that you might have become distracted or your thoughts and feelings drawn away from these truths by your cares or other things, I consider it not useless to remind you of this.

In every kingdom there appear a king, laws, privileges or promises and rewards, and an end to which it leads.

All these traits in the Kingdom of Christ are clearly evident, certainly true, and unbreakable, while in the kingdom of this age they are false, deceptive, illusory. Just look for yourselves!

Who is the King in the Kingdom of grace? God, worshipped in the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Who created the world and provides for all, Who, having arranged our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, authoritatively laid His commandments and injunctions upon all who follow Him for their own good; Who makes Himself known to all, allows all to taste, to spiritually touch; Who is merciful to all and cares for all, helps all, and assures all: «Work in my vineyard according to my will; I see all and will reward you for all.» And those laboring in the Kingdom of Christ know definitely whom they serve, and this gives them inner strength and patience in labors. They are assured that they labor before the face of the all-seeing, all-helping, all-consoling Lord, and rejoice in the midst of all hardships and difficulties in which their earnest labor for the Lord is placed. I “suffer,” says the Apostle, “but am not ashamed. I know whom I have believed and am confident” that “He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day»” (2 Tim. 1:12).

In the kingdom of the prince of this age—in the world—it is quite different. Here no one knows who their king is. If the most desperate world-lover realized that his king is the malicious and gloomy Satan, whom he serves to his own destruction, he would at once with horror turn and flee from his domain. But this is hidden from the sons of this age. The enemy has hidden his vile form from their eyes. And world-lovers serve, not knowing whom. You constantly hear: «One cannot do this, one cannot do that… this is how it should be… and this is how it must be…»; but ask: «Why? Who commanded it?»—no one will say. Everyone is constrained and oppressed by the institutions established among them; even some condemn and curse them, but no one dares to break away from them, fearing someone—as if watching, ready to punish—whom, however, no one can point out and definitely name. The world is a gathering of persons working for some phantom of their imagination, although in reality behind it is cunningly concealed the malicious Satan.

What are the laws in the Kingdom of Christ? Christ, our true God, said definitely:

«Do this and that… and you will please Me and be saved. Deny yourself, be poor in spirit, be meek, peace-loving, patient, pure in heart, love righteousness, weep for your sins, revere Me day and night, be benevolent and kind to your brothers… and perfectly keep all my commandments, not sparing yourselves…» See how everything is clear and definite, and not only definite but also sealed forever by the unchangeableness of His word. As it is written, so shall it be to the end of the age. Every one entering the Kingdom of Christ knows for sure what he must do, does not expect any changes in the laws that govern the Kingdom, and therefore proceeds confidently and cheerfully along its path, assured that he will certainly reach what he seeks.

It is not so at all in the kingdom of the prince of this age. Here it is impossible to settle one’s thought on anything definite. The spirit of world-lovers is known; it is the spirit of self-will, pride, self-interest, and universal comfort and sensuality.

But the applications of this spirit—the laws and rules of the world—are so shaky, vague, changeable that no one can vouch for the fact that tomorrow the world will not begin to consider bad and disapproved what it now admires. The customs of the world flow like water, and its rules—for clothing, speech, meetings, relationships, stances, postures, and everything in general—are as unstable as the movement of the air… Now it is this way… tomorrow, one knows not from where, a fashion will come and change everything. The world is a stage on which Satan makes sport of poor mankind, forcing it to dance at his bidding like apes or puppets in popular plays, making it consider valuable, important, essentially necessary what is in itself trifling, worthless, empty. And all are occupied with this—small and great alike, not excluding those who by their origin, upbringing, and actual position in life could, it seems, spend their time and labor on something better than these phantoms.

What advantages and promises does the Kingdom of Christ offer? Our Lord and God says: «Work for Me, and I will reward you for all. Every deed of yours, and every thought of yours, and your desires, and feelings displayed in pleasing Me and held by you—none will lack its reward. What others do not see, I see; what others do not value, I value; for what others may persecute you, I will be your Protector; and for every labor of yours there is ready an eternal dwelling, which is built by your labors.» Thus the Lord has promised, thus it is. And all who enter His Kingdom experience by deed the truthfulness of these promises. They taste the blessedness of labors in which they toil in God’s commandments—the blessedness of humility, meekness, righteousness, peace, mercy, patience, purity, and every other virtue. And these virtues, produced by God’s grace, make their hearts vessels of God’s Spirit, Who is for them a pledge or earnest of the future inheritance, surely hoped for, because of these foretastes assimilated by everyone who labors for the Lord with sincerity.

Are the world’s promises like this? Not at all. The world promises everything and gives nothing. It lures, having aroused hope, but at the moment, so to speak, of rendering what is promised, it steals it… then, again pointing in the distance, again lures, and again steals from the one who has received what seems already obtained. Therefore, in the world all chase after something that promises much, and no one gets anything; they pursue phantoms that dissolve into the air at the moment when they are about to seize them. World-lovers boast in empty confidence that by acting in a worldly way they deserve the world’s attention; but the world either does not see their deeds, or, seeing them, does not recognize their value, or, having recognized it, does not give the conditional reward. In the world all without exception are deceived, and all continue to deceive themselves with hopes for which they have no foundation.

I will point out one more trait briefly.

Those who serve the Lord are outwardly invisible, often despised and persecuted, yet inwardly they always grow in spiritual perfections, which in another world will shine in them like the sun and will give them a place and blessedness corresponding to themselves. Those who serve the world are outwardly visible, brilliant, often all-powerful, yet inwardly they are gnawed at by anguish, torments of heart, and burning anxieties. Having no peace here even for a moment, they pass into eternal, inconsolable torment there, which cannot be described.

Such is the fate here and the lot there of those living according to the spirit of Christ and according to the spirit of the world. Here are the characteristic traits of the two kingdoms! I do not say to you—choose… because only one who has lost all sense can hesitate in his choice. And yet the kingdom of this age exists and is never empty, and yet it is composed entirely of us. How is this a wonder? Is our mind sometimes or from certain sides not very wise, or does the spirit of the world around us act so swiftly that it obscures us before we have time to think—with one glance enticing and swallowing up its prey like certain poisonous snakes? But this is certain: many even of the Christians cling to the world, and the world cannot complain of the rarity of rows of its worshipers…

But, brothers, however bewitching the world may be, this is no justification for those drawn to it. “If”, says the Lord, “I had not come and spoken”, you “would have no sin.” “Now”, that is, when He has explained everything, you have no “excuse” (Jn. 15:22). Why is it so strongly impressed and so often repeated in God’s word: “«love of the world… is enmity toward God»” (Jas. 4:4) “«do not love the world, nor what is in the world»” (1 Jn. 2:15) “«come out from the midst” of it “and the uncleanness” of it “do not touch»” (2 Cor. 6:17); put away the wickedness from your souls, and “«you will live»” (Rom. 8:13) and the like? It is so that those to whom it applies might come to their senses, sober up from the intoxicating love of the world, take hold of themselves, and turn from what is phantom and pernicious deception to what is essential salvation—with firm steps following in the train of so great a multitude of men and women who shone with virtues on earth and were glorified by glory in heaven.

Merciful Lord, by the prayers of all Your saints, grant that all who are unfortunate enough to be caught in the devil’s snare of their own will may rise from the diabolical net, and lead all from this darkness into Your wonderful light and from the realm of Satan to God. Amen.

What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

I have spoken to you several times now against the world and attachment to it. I do not think I have wearied you with this, trusting in your love of truth and readiness to listen to it, however bitter it may be. But it occurs to me that perhaps you consider the strict judgments against the world to be my personal opinion about it and world-loving? Do you perhaps think that the world is not so opposed to Christ, and worldly life to Christian life, that the two could not be united, and that by living in a worldly way, one could at the same time live as a Christian? At least the prevailing opinion now is that strict estrangement from the world and all worldly things is the property of narrow simplicity or unthinking zeal and gloomy melancholy, and that, on the contrary, the dignity of the present age and enlightenment consist precisely in being able to unite Christianity with world-loving, looking with pity on these poor wretches who, for the sake of salvation and pleasing God, deprive themselves of this or that pleasure and comfort of the world.

I do not undertake to enter into dispute with such philosophers. And now I have resolved—not to speak one word from myself, but only to gather together into one place all that is said in God’s word against the world and world-loving. Each, returning to his conscience, will certainly find a strict command to obey unquestioningly what the Lord commands, in opposition to all current opinions and all the contrary feelings and resistances rising up from our hearts. What the Lord and His holy apostles clearly and definitively say, that is the law for us.

Listen to what the Lord says about the world, and His holy apostles, and stop being wise in vain.

How does the Lord speak about the world? But you know beforehand that the Lord, who was so condescending to sinners and the weak, Who took all our sins upon Himself, Who called His yoke easy, and rebuked the Jewish teachers for burdening people with unnecessary strictness—such a Lord would certainly not impose upon His followers the burden of estrangement from the world if it were possible to unite world-loving with following Him. And yet, see how He speaks.

In what relation does the Savior place Himself to the world? “I,” He says, “am not of this world»”, and He repeats this word several times (Jn. 8:23, 17:14-16). “«I am not of this world»”, and “«My kingdom is not of this world»” (Jn. 8:23, 18:36). The Kingdom of Christ is established in the world and from the people of the world, but on the ruins of the kingdom of the prince of the world. Why the Lord says: «I came down from heaven to bind the strong one, to destroy the works of the devil!» (Jn. 6:38, Mk. 3:27, 1 Jn. 3:8). Since this has been accomplished by His death on the cross, before His suffering He pronounced judgment on the world: “«Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out»” (Jn. 12:31). See what opposition! How can you, pleasing the world, be with Christ? “«What fellowship has light with darkness; or what agreement does Christ have with Belial?»” (2 Cor. 6:14-15)

Perhaps, however, the Lord is so strict toward the world in His own Person? But did He not make some allowance in this for His disciples, whom it is inevitable must be in the world and live among world-lovers? Not at all. And “they,” He says, “are not of the world, even as I am not of the world»” (Jn. 17:14). Therefore, comforting them in another place, He adds: “«If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you»” (Jn. 15:18-19). How can you wish to belong to Christ and be at peace with the world?

Did the Lord not promise at least in the future some peace with the world? Have we not waited for this blessed time and cannot think peacefully that we please the Lord by loving the world and save our soul? No, this was not promised. I, He says, “«will send you” a Spirit “whom the world cannot receive»” (Jn. 14:16-17), that is, a Spirit completely opposite to the spirit of the world. “«And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment»” (Jn. 16:8). Therefore, constant and eternal warfare will be between you and the world, as a result of which “«in the world you will have tribulation; but take courage, for I have overcome the world»” (Jn. 16:33). How can you think to live at peace with the world and belong to the Lord, when the Lord’s Spirit given to His followers cannot be at peace with the world?

Thus, you see that in the teaching of the Lord there is no allowance for the world.

You can in advance be sure that you will find no allowance for it either in the words of the holy apostles. Take the loving John and the righteous James shining in righteousness. What do they say? Both say in one voice: “«Do not love the world»”. “«Do not love the world,” says the Apostle John, “nor what is in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and its desire; but the one who does the will of God abides forever»” (1 Jn. 2:15-17). “«Do you not know,” says the Apostle James, “that love of the world is enmity toward God? Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.»” How terrible! “Or do you suppose” the Scripture “speaks to no purpose: He yearns jealously for the spirit that dwells in us?»” (Jas. 4:4-5). That is, this Spirit is so zealous that He cannot permit us even to belong in the least to the world; He demands complete devotion of the Lord.

See further what the other apostles say: “«We did not receive the spirit of the world, but the Spirit from God»” (1 Cor. 2:12). Before, that is, when you were not Christians, “you” “were enslaved” “to the elementary principles of the world»” (Gal. 4:3) and “«walked according to the course of this world»” (Eph. 2:2), “«according to the tradition of men»” (Col. 2:8), that is, according to worldly customs. Now, that is, having received Christ, “«you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world»” (Col. 2:20), now “«the world»” to you “«is crucified, and»” you “«to the world»” (Gal. 6:14), that is, it is dead to you, and you should be dead to it. Therefore “«keep yourselves unspotted by the world»” (Jas. 1:27), flee from the “stains»” of the world (2 Pet. 2:20) and “«the corrupting lusts that are in the world»” (2 Pet. 1:4); and, “«having renounced impiety and worldly passions, live soberly, justly, and piously in the present age»” (Tit. 2:12). “«The whole world lies in the power of the evil one»” (1 Jn. 5:19) and hates true good; therefore do not be amazed that “«the world hates you»” (1 Jn. 3:13). Be of good cheer rather, receiving the grace by which “«everyone born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?»” (1 Jn. 5:4-5), that is, Christian faith is so closely united with victory over the world that where it is, there is no world—it is overcome… and consequently, conversely: where the world is, there is no faith, there is no Christ, and there is no Christianity.

Here neither the Lord nor the apostles spare the world! Neither the Lord nor the apostles… What kind of disciples are these who want to unite world-loving with love of Christ, who teach this and want to live this way? I will tell you what kind—and I will tell you in the words of the apostles. The Apostle John says: “«Test the spirits»”, because “«many false prophets” have gone out “into the world. They are of the world; for this reason they speak from the world, and the world listens to them»” (1 Jn. 4:1, 5), that is, these false prophets—false teachers—defend the world because they themselves are of the world, not of Christ. Therefore, both those who listen to them and those who follow them are not of Christ but are of the world.

And is there not coming to pass among us what the Apostle Paul foretold: “«There will come a time when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers according to their desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths»?” (2 Tim. 4:3-4) See what a strict judgment not only upon the world but also upon the defenders of world-loving!

Let whoever wishes to contrive to love the world with false hope that he will not thus come into opposition to the spirit of Christ! But you do not be drawn away—and do not imitate such people! The very intention of such trickery reveals the absence of the spirit of Christ—the Exposer of the world. Is it proper for us to think of a union of the world with Christ when from the first days of the Savior’s coming into the world the world has risen against Him with authority, cunning, and malice? Does this not suggest that Christians should not even think of living in peace with the world, which so fiercely wars against their Lord? Thus it has always been. After the Lord and the holy apostles, all those who truly believed and served the Lord went counter to the world and the spirit thereof, and for this were themselves made the targets of arrows from the face of the world—suffered and were persecuted. Indeed, “«and all who desire to live godly” in the world “will be persecuted»” (2 Tim. 3:12). What harmony is there?!

Now, I think, all of you will agree that in not approving the world, I was not setting forth to you my own private opinion. The Lord and the holy apostles have condemned it with clear and definite words that admit no reinterpretation. «Whoever is of God listens to us,» says the holy John the Theologian (1 Jn. 4:6). After this there is nothing for us to differ in our judgment of the world. Perhaps, however, our conceptions of the world itself do not agree?! In reality, the world can be understood differently, and it is not surprising that among these conceptions there are those by which the worldly life does not seem wholly opposed to the spirit of Christ… In such a case someone might say: «And I know that the world is opposed to Christ and that the believer must reject it; but what you call the world, I do not consider to belong to the world. Tell me: what is that world which is condemned by the Lord and the holy apostles, in which those who live perish, and from which all who wish to be saved and please God must withdraw?»

The question, as you see, is most natural, but not simple, and cannot be answered in one word. I will try to do this another time; and in the meantime I invite you to reason about this. In fact, perhaps it would be sufficient to determine precisely what the world and worldliness are in order to turn away from them, and if this or that is permitted in life, it is only because it is not counted as worldly.

Take upon yourselves a little labor—clarify this. At a fitting time I will come to your aid with my word, so that together we may progress in knowing the truth of Christianity, for our salvation and the glory of God, worshipped in the Trinity. Amen.

Appendix: What the World Is, According to the Word of St. Isaac the Syrian

At the end of the last discourse a question was posed: What is the world? —left without answer. For those who wish to have an answer, the following is offered, which St. Isaac the Syrian says about this.

When you hear of withdrawal from the world, of abandoning the world, of purity from all that is in the world, then it is first necessary for you to understand and learn not by simple folk understanding, but with pure rational clarity what this very term means, from what distinctions this name is composed, and then you will be able to know about your own soul: how far it is from the world and what of the world is mixed with it.

The word world is a collective noun that encompasses all the passions we have enumerated. If a man does not first understand what the world is, he will not attain to the knowledge of how many members he is far from the world and how many are bound with it. There are many who have renounced the world with two or three members and refused to share in it with those members, thinking that they have become alien to the world in their living, because they did not understand wisely and did not observe that they have died to the world with only two members, while their other members in body live to the world. Yet they were not able to recognize and perceive their own passions; and not recognizing them, they did not take care for their healing.

According to contemplative investigation, the world is called and is the composition of a collective name embracing separate passions. And when in general we wish to name the passions, we call them the world; and when we wish to distinguish them by their different names, we call them passions. Passions are parts of the successive flow of the world; and where passions cease, there the world comes to an end in its continuity. The passions are these: attachment to riches, the desire to accumulate things; carnal pleasure, from which arises the passion of marriage; desire for honor, from which envy flows; the desire to rule authoritatively; puffing up from the splendor of power; desire to adorn and to please; the seeking of human fame, which becomes the cause of rancor; fear for the body.

Where these passions cease to flow, there the world has died; and insofar as some of these parts of its composition are lacking there, the world remains outside, not acting through those parts of its composition; just as someone said of the saints that, being still alive, they had become dead, because, living in the flesh, they did not live according to the flesh. And you look at which of these parts you live by; then you will know by which parts you live and by which you are dead to the world. When you recognize what the world is, then from this distinction you will recognize both how you are bound with the world and how you have been freed from it.

And I will say it more briefly: the world is fleshly living and the thinking of the flesh. By the fact that a man has snatched himself from this, it is known that he has departed from the world. And withdrawal from the world is known by these two signs: by a superior manner of living and by the distinction of the concepts of the mind itself.

In baptism. – Editor.

Coming down. – Editor.

Concern, providence. – Editor.

Sorrows.

on both feet.

Fervor, ardor. – Editor.

Hold with reverence. – Editor.

Intrigues. – Editor.

Scripture Index

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 4:245. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

Psalms

Psalms 38:72. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

Psalms 72:262. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

Psalms 88:16–172. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

Matthew

Matthew 5:165. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

Matthew 6:192. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

Matthew 6:244. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?; 5. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

Matthew 6:335. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

Matthew 7:74. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

Matthew 19:16–223. Our Peace Is a False Peace: Is Our Conversion Complete?

Matthew 19:213. Our Peace Is a False Peace: Is Our Conversion Complete?

Matthew 19:223. Our Peace Is a False Peace: Is Our Conversion Complete?

Mark

Mark 3:277. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Mark 12:305. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

Luke

Luke 10:275. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

Luke 11:21–224. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

Luke 11:235. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

Luke 17:215. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within; 6. On Gracious Choice

Luke 18:384. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

John

John 6:387. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

John 12:317. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

John 14:16–177. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

John 15:54. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

John 15:18–197. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

John 15:226. On Gracious Choice

John 16:87. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

John 16:337. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

John 17:147. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Acts

Acts 2:371. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

Acts 2:381. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

Acts 2:411. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

Acts 2:42–471. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

Acts 3:81. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

Acts 3:191. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

Romans
Romans 8:136. On Gracious Choice
1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2:127. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

1 Corinthians 7:29–315. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

1 Corinthians 9:244. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

1 Corinthians 15:285. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5:171. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

2 Corinthians 6:14–157. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

2 Corinthians 6:176. On Gracious Choice

2 Corinthians 11:23. Our Peace Is a False Peace: Is Our Conversion Complete?; 5. Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

Galatians

Galatians 4:37. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Galatians 6:147. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:42. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

Ephesians 2:27. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Ephesians 4:132. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life; 6. On Gracious Choice

Ephesians 5:273. Our Peace Is a False Peace: Is Our Conversion Complete?

Philippians

Philippians 2:134. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

Philippians 4:52. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

Philippians 4:134. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

Colossians

Colossians 1:134. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

Colossians 2:87. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Colossians 2:207. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

2 Timothy

2 Timothy 1:126. On Gracious Choice

2 Timothy 3:127. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

2 Timothy 4:3–47. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Titus

Titus 2:127. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Titus 2:142. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

James

James 1:277. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

James 4:46. On Gracious Choice

James 4:4–57. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

1 Peter

1 Peter 2:92. The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

1 Peter 3:41. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

1 Peter 3:211. The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

2 Peter

2 Peter 1:47. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

2 Peter 2:207. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

1 John

1 John 2:156. On Gracious Choice

1 John 2:15–177. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

1 John 3:87. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

1 John 3:137. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

1 John 4:67. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

1 John 5:4–57. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

1 John 5:197. What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

Revelation

Revelation 3:154. Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

Revelation 3:163. Our Peace Is a False Peace: Is Our Conversion Complete?

The Author: Saint Theophan the Recluse

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894) is among the most beloved teachers of the spiritual life in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was born on 10 January 1815 in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol province of central Russia, and given the name Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov. His father was a parish priest, and the boy was raised in the ordered piety of a country rectory. He studied first at the theological school in Livny, then at the Oryol Seminary, and finally at the Kiev Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1841. The ancient monasteries of Kiev, and above all the Monastery of the Caves, left a deep mark on him during those years.

In his last year as a student, in 1841, Georgy Govorov was tonsured a monk and given the name Theophan, after Saint Theophan the Confessor, a defender of the holy icons. He was soon ordained hieromonk and set on the path of teaching and administration in the Church’s schools: he served in the theological schools of Kiev, as inspector at Novgorod, and as an instructor in moral and pastoral theology at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. For several years he lived in the Christian East, attached to the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, where in Jerusalem, Constantinople, and on Mount Athos he studied, copied, and gathered the writings of the Fathers that he would later render into Russian. In 1857 he was appointed rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy.

In 1859 he was consecrated Bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, and in 1863 he was transferred to the ancient see of Vladimir. As a bishop he was known for gentleness, tireless preaching, and care for the education of his people, founding diocesan schools for girls in both dioceses. Yet the labours of administration drew him away from the inner life he most desired. In 1866, at his own request, he was released from the government of his diocese and withdrew to the Vyshensky Hermitage, a quiet monastery he had come to love while at Tambov.

At Vysha, Saint Theophan gradually gave himself wholly to prayer and writing. Beginning in 1872 he entered strict reclusion: he no longer left his cell for the monastery church, received almost no visitors, and lived for the remaining years in two small rooms, celebrating the Divine Liturgy alone in a chapel he had arranged. This seclusion, far from being idleness, became the most fruitful period of his life. From it flowed the works for which he is remembered: The Path to Salvation and What the Spiritual Life Is; his translation and great expansion of the Philokalia (the Russian Dobrotolyubie) and of other monastic writings; Unseen Warfare; his commentaries on almost all the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, together with expositions of several Psalms; and an immense correspondence, in which he answered, often at the rate of dozens of letters a day, the spiritual questions of people throughout Russia. In 1890 the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy conferred on him a doctorate in theology.

Saint Theophan reposed on 6 January 1894, the Feast of the Theophany whose name he bore, at the age of seventy-nine, and was buried at the Vysha monastery. In 1988, during the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church that celebrated the millennium of the Baptism of Rus’, he was numbered among the saints. His feast is kept on 10 January.

His significance for the Church lies in the way he gathered the whole ascetical and patristic inheritance of Orthodoxy and made it speak to ordinary Christians. He wrote not for specialists but for anyone seeking God, tracing with unusual clarity the movements of the heart, the discipline of unceasing prayer, and the long work by which grace and human freedom together bring a soul to salvation. In his Scripture commentaries this same pastoral aim is at work: he reads the sacred text through the eyes of the ancient Fathers and turns every doctrine toward the reader’s own inner life. For this the Russian Church honours him as a Father in her own age and a sure guide on the path of salvation.

Colophon

On Complete Conversion to God
by Theophan the Recluse.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The cover features
The Return of the Prodigal Son (c. 1668)
by Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), Wikimedia Commons (Google Art Project), which is in the public domain.

The text is set in Palatino and Georgia.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 16, 2026.

Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Introduction

- The Bath of Regeneration: What Is Accomplished in the Font of Baptism?

- The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

- Our Peace Is a False Peace: Is Our Conversion Complete?

- Do Not Be Afraid! What Must We Do to Attain Grace, or With What Can the Kingdom of God Be Compared?

- Where God Is, There Is Blessedness: In Whom God Will Reign Within

- On Gracious Choice

- What Harmony Is This? What the Lord and His Apostles Say About the World

- Appendix: What the World Is, According to the Word of St. Isaac the Syrian

- Scripture Index
- The Author: Saint Theophan the Recluse
- Colophon