Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Spiritual instruction; Theophan the Recluse; Gospel of John prologue; the eternal Word Logos; the Holy Trinity Orthodox teaching; Christ the true Light; the Incarnation of the Word; Russian Orthodox spirituality; Religion & Spirituality; Christianity / Orthodox; Bible / New Testament / Commentaries
Description: Read the Gospel of John, Saint Theophan the Recluse urges, not for information but for lessons taken one verse at a time. In ten short meditations he opens the prologue’s towering theology — the eternal Word who was with God and was God, the Holy Trinity of three persons in one essence, the Word through whom all things were made and by whom all are upheld, the true Light shining in a darkened world, and God become flesh so that men might be born as children of God.

Lessons from the Acts and Words of the Lord

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 Appearance of Christ to the People (Явление Христа народу, 1837–1857) by Alexander Ivanov (Russian, 1806–1858), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:uroki_iz_dejanij:en:1

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov on 10 January 1815, in the village of Chernavsk in the Oryol province of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. He was schooled first at the Livny church school and the Oryol seminary, and in 1837 entered the Kiev Theological Academy, then one of the great centers of Russian ecclesiastical learning, close by the ancient Monastery of the Caves. There, drawn to the monastic life he had come to love, he was tonsured a monk shortly before completing his studies, taking the name Theophan in honor of Saint Theophanes the Confessor; he graduated in 1841 with a master’s degree.

The decades that followed carried him through nearly every station of the Russian Church’s teaching life. He was rector of church schools in Kiev, taught and served as an inspector at the Saint Petersburg Academy, led a mission in Jerusalem and a post in Constantinople, and was rector of the seminary at Novgorod. In 1859 he was consecrated bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, and in 1863 was transferred to the see of Vladimir. He proved an energetic pastor, founding diocesan schools and preaching tirelessly. Yet his heart was set elsewhere. In 1866 he petitioned to be released from the burdens of a diocese and withdrew to the secluded Vysha Hermitage in the Tambov province. There, after a few years of ordinary monastic life, he sealed himself into complete reclusion, closing his cell to visitors and giving the remaining decades to prayer, study, and an immense correspondence with people across Russia who sought his counsel.

Reclusion did not silence him; it made him one of the most widely read spiritual writers Russia has produced. From his cell came a stream of books, translations, and letters that shaped the inner life of a whole generation. He rendered the Philokalia — the great anthology of ascetic and contemplative Fathers—from Church Slavonic into accessible Russian, produced spiritual classics such as The Path to Salvation and Unseen Warfare, and wrote extensively on Scripture and the moral life. His particular gift was to carry the wisdom of the ancient Fathers into language ordinary believers could grasp and use. He died at Vysha on 6 January 1894, the feast of the Theophany whose name he bore, still at his writing table that same afternoon. The Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints in 1988, during the celebrations of the millennium of the baptism of Rus’; he is commemorated on 10 January and 16 June.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The title of this small book can mislead an English reader at first glance. Lessons from the Acts and Words of the Lord has nothing to do with the biblical book of Acts. The Russian deyaniya means simply “deeds” or “doings,” and Theophan’s subject is the deeds and words of Jesus Christ himself as the Gospels record them—the living portrait of the incarnate Lord, held up as the pattern a Christian is to copy into his own life.

The opening pages set the scene. The Church, Theophan observes, appoints a short passage of the Gospel to be read on every day of the year, and each day’s reading is a field of lessons waiting to be gathered—now from what the Lord did, now from what he said. What he offers is a worked example of that daily labor: a set of reflections he is careful to call “not a finished work, but only an attempt,” meant to wake the reader’s own contemplation rather than to substitute for it. The internal evidence points to the paschal season as the occasion. The third meditation opens with the Easter greeting “Christ is risen!”, and the whole cycle expounds the prologue of the Gospel of John—the very passage the Orthodox Church proclaims at the Divine Liturgy of Pascha, from which the long Johannine cycle of readings then unfolds through the weeks between Easter and Pentecost. The prologue is thus not an arbitrary choice but the doorway through which the Church’s year of Gospel reading begins again each Pascha, and these lessons follow that appointed text step by step, verse after verse, as a companion to the season’s daily Gospel.

The purpose is therefore practical before it is doctrinal. Theophan is not writing a treatise on the Fourth Gospel; he is teaching a method of prayerful reading and demonstrating it on the loftiest text he can find. The aim is that Christ should be “formed” in the reader—first understood in the mind, then loved in the heart, then obeyed in the will—so that the believer, looking upon the features of the Lord’s life “as a painter looks upon the original,” might transfer them onto the canvas of his own days. Within Theophan’s large corpus the book belongs with his other works of guided spiritual reading, sharing their governing conviction that the knowledge that saves is knowledge received into the heart and carried into action.

Argument and Structure

The book falls into ten short chapters. The first stands somewhat apart as a programmatic opening; the remaining nine form a sustained, verse-by-verse contemplation of the prologue of John, from “In the beginning was the Word” to the promise that those who receive him are given power to become children of God.

The first chapter lays the foundation. Because we are made in the image and likeness of God, and because the fallen image is restored in Christ, the whole duty of god-likeness becomes the duty of Christ-likeness—of imitating the Lord whose life the Gospel depicts. Theophan then sets out his method, drawing it from the opening of Saint Luke’s Gospel: approach the reading with warm desire, with simple faith, and with careful attention; take a single verse and engage the whole soul with it—the mind to understand, the heart to feel the truth’s force, the will to obey what follows—and only when the soul is satisfied move on. A single word that has pierced the heart, he insists, is worth more for a lifetime than a cloud of bright thoughts that leave it untouched.

The second chapter turns to the one of whom the Gospel speaks and gathers the whole confession into a sentence: God, worshipped in the Trinity, saves fallen mankind through the incarnate Son. To fix the reader’s mind before the exposition begins, Theophan sets down in full the ancient creedal statement of the Trinity that the Church ascribes to Saint Athanasius the Great—one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

From there the chapters follow the text. Chapter three (“In the beginning was the Word”) reads the mystery of the Trinity out of John’s opening clauses, guarding at every step against the errors the Church has always rejected—the reduction of the Son to a creature, the collapse of the persons into mere modes of one God. Chapter four (“All things were made through him”) moves from the eternal Word to creation and providence, and finds in the threefold patterns woven through the created order a reflection of the Trinity of the Creator; here Theophan introduces a theme that runs through the rest of the book—that struggle is the appointed condition of rational, free creatures on their way to perfection. Chapters five and six unfold “In him was life, and that life was the light of mankind”: the first treating the Word as the providence that sustains all things in being, the second the inner light given to man alone—the fear of God, conscience, and the heart’s dissatisfaction with everything created.

The final chapters trace the drama of that light in a darkened world. Chapter seven (“the light shines in the darkness”) reads the state of humanity after the Fall, lit only by the promise of salvation and the prophetic word. Chapter eight names that darkness precisely as the darkness of sin, which the Gospel word finally disperses. Chapter nine expounds the mission of Saint John the Forerunner, sent as the morning star before the sun to bear witness to the light—and extends his role forward to the enduring witness of the Church’s pastors. The tenth chapter gathers the prologue’s close into three marks of the true Light: that it alone truly illumines, that it works hiddenly and is received only by those who open the spirit’s eye, and that it makes a new creation, granting to all who believe the right to become children of God, born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh but of God.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The lasting interest of this little book lies in its refusal to separate doctrine from life. Theophan takes up the most exalted passage in the New Testament—the theology of the eternal Word, the Trinity, the Incarnation—and never lets it float free as speculation. Each truth is pressed back upon the soul as something to be lived. The eternity of the Son becomes ground for worship; the doctrine of creation becomes a summons to struggle; the hidden working of the light becomes a warning to keep the inner eye clean. This is patristic reading in the old sense, where dogma and asceticism are one movement of the mind toward God.

Two threads in particular give the book its character. The first is Theophan’s insistence that struggle is the very form of created life. From the fourth chapter onward he returns to it: a limited and free creature can be established in the good only by contending against what would draw it away, so that struggle becomes not a punishment for the Fall but the appointed path of every rational being, both before Adam’s sin and after it. “Do not dream of rest while breath remains in you,” he tells the reader, “looking upon the great reward.” The second is his account of the Forerunner, whom he reads not only as a figure of the past but as the pattern of every true guide. Just as John gathered the rays of prophecy and turned them upon Christ, so the Church’s pastors continue his office, pointing troubled souls away from themselves and toward the one Light—a note of pastoral realism, and of warning to shepherds and sought souls alike, that keeps the exalted theology tethered to the ordinary care of the Church.

The work also shows Theophan as an heir of the Fathers rather than an innovator. He reads the prologue with the tradition at his elbow, citing Saint John Chrysostom on the Word as the providence of all things, Saint Hilary on the joint creative act of the divine persons, and the Bulgarian commentator Theophylact on the certainty of the Gospel witness. His running polemic against Arius, Sabellius, Paul of Samosata, Nestorius, and the Docetae is not antiquarian: he presents these ancient errors as living temptations of the mind, the perennial ways human reason stumbles before the mystery of God made man, and he answers them with the plain confession that Christ is true God and true man in one person—“the stone on which the Lord has built his holy Church.”

Above all the book is a small manual of how a Christian should read Holy Scripture. Its account of the threefold engagement of mind, heart, and will, and its insistence that truth is only truly possessed once it has passed through the heart and into conduct, distills a whole tradition of contemplative reading into a form any believer can practice. It is this pastoral clarity—the ability to make the heights of theology into daily bread—that has kept Theophan among the most trusted spiritual guides of the modern Christian East, and that gives these ten meditations a value out of proportion to their length.

The Text and This Edition

This edition presents a fresh, complete rendering of Theophan’s Lessons from the Acts and Words of the Lord into modern English. It was made from the public-domain Russian text as preserved in the collected works of the saint—the Works of our Father among the Saints Theophan the Recluse, published in the pre-revolutionary era by the Russian Monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos—and follows the Russian throughout; it is an English edition, not a bilingual or parallel one.

A word about Scripture. Theophan quotes the Bible constantly, and always in the Church Slavonic and Synodal Russian wording familiar to his readers. Those quotations have been carried into plain modern English directly from his text rather than conformed to any existing English Bible, so that the exact turns of phrase he builds his arguments upon are preserved. His references likewise follow the conventions of the Slavonic Bible: the Psalms are cited in the numbering of the Greek Septuagint (so that, for example, “Psalm 88” corresponds to Psalm 89 of Hebrew-numbered Bibles), and the book of Revelation appears under its older title, the Apocalypse. Chapter and verse citations are given in the plain Arabic style used throughout this series.

Two conventions of this series should be noted. Following traditional usage, the author is named as the Church has always received him, Saint Theophan the Recluse; and those who prepared this English text are credited as translators, never as authors of the work. The creedal statement quoted in the second chapter is given as Theophan gives it, in the words the Church ascribes to Saint Athanasius the Great. Where his own text carries emphasis or marks a scriptural echo, this edition preserves it.

Suggestions for Reading

The reader who wants to take Theophan on his own terms should resist the temptation to read quickly. The book is not information to be absorbed but an exercise to be performed, and its first chapter is the instruction manual: read it slowly and let it govern the rest. Take the meditations a few paragraphs at a time, ideally against an open Gospel, pausing wherever a sentence catches—for that catching, in Theophan’s account, is the whole point. The reflections were written to follow the daily Gospel of the paschal season, and they keep something of that unhurried, one-day-at-a-time rhythm; they reward being read the same way. Those who come to the book chiefly for its theology will find in the middle chapters a lucid short course on the Trinity, creation, and the person of Christ. Those who come for the spiritual life will find, running quietly beneath the doctrine, a single steady counsel: that everything given here is given to be lived, and that a truth known by heart and carried into a day’s conduct is worth more than a library of thoughts that never leave the head.

Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

We are created in the image and likeness of God. The image lies in our spiritual nature—in consciousness, free activity, and immortality; the likeness—in the reflection within ourselves of God’s divine perfections. “«Be… perfect,»” commands the Lord, “«as your heavenly Father is perfect»” (Mt. 5:48). In another place he points to one of the qualities of God’s all-perfection for our imitation: “«Be… merciful, as… your Father is merciful»” (Lk. 6:36). Mercy, then, is set foremost; the other marks of necessary god-likeness—holiness, righteousness, wisdom, and the rest—are left for us to complete ourselves. Yet God’s all-perfection is limitless; and a pure mind is not able to grasp these even insofar as they are possible for us to imitate, much less so after our mind’s eye has been clouded over as a result of the Fall. Yet this weakness of mind does not remove the force of the obligation to god-likeness, placed within the very structure of our spiritual nature. Therefore, the Restorer of the fallen, “«the radiance of God’s glory and the image of God’s substance»” (Hebr. 1:3), who was pleased to appear on earth through the Incarnation and to accomplish our salvation here, satisfied this need as well, among the other requirements of restoration. He embodied in Himself all of God’s perfections, as they are able to be appropriated by the powers of human nature, in a life common to all people. After this, the binding obligation to god-likeness and god-imitation is fulfilled through christ-likeness and christ-imitation.

“«Be imitators of me,»” says the Apostle Paul, “«as I am of Christ»” (1 Cor. 11:1). And the Lord himself commanded: «whoever “wishes to come after me, let him… follow” me» (Lk. 9:23), by acting as he acted and truly fulfilling his commandments. He made this clear when, concluding his earthly sojourn, he said: “«I have given you an example… that as I have done…, so you also should do»” (Jn. 13:15). Though this concerned one deed of the Lord (Jn. 13:1-14), this deed is of such a nature that it embraces everything. Only follow his example in this, and you will imitate the Lord in all things, for here is expressed the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

For this reason the Apostle Paul “«was in travail»” chiefly so that in all believers “«Christ would be formed»” (Gal. 4:19), so that they, truly believing in Christ, would bear his image within themselves constantly and would reflect this image in their life, so that, clothed in Christ through baptism, they would manifest Christ to everyone who sees them, living brightly “«in renewed life,»” after the likeness of the brightness of the risen Lord (Rom. 6:4). “«We are the aroma of Christ,»” says the holy Paul on behalf of all the Apostles (2 Cor. 2:15); but this is not a privilege of the Apostles alone but the duty of all Christians. As a fragrant flower, diffusing its fragrance around, makes its presence known to all, so every Christian, living in christ-like manner and inwardly disposed, should diffuse around himself the fragrance of Christ’s perfections, so that everyone, at his appearance, would sense the presence of Christ’s spirit.

This ought to happen as if naturally, because everyone, through baptism and faith, gracefully receives within himself “«the spirit of life in Christ Jesus»” (Rom. 8:2). The spirit of life in Christ Jesus, unfolding in deeds, should of itself produce a christ-like life. But human life is not like plant life. Here, a person casts seed into the earth, and it of itself produces root, stalk, and grain. But a human being is distinguished by consciousness and freedom, and his life is not a chain of phenomena, one flowing necessarily from another, but a series of deeds consciously undertaken and self-actively accomplished. He envisions for himself an image of life and then carries it out. And only in this manner is his life truly human life, a rational, free life. To the Christian, the christ-imitator by calling, there is no need to tire his head in envisioning his life. He has before him the image of the Lord Christ’s life. Let each one look upon it and live by it. As a painter looks upon the original and line by line transfers it onto the prepared canvas, so a Christian must look upon the features of the Lord’s life and transfer them into his own life.

True life in Christ Jesus is depicted in the Gospel, in the deeds and words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Read, pay heed, and learn to live in Christ, imitating his deeds and following his teaching. The holy Church guides you to this work, offering daily a brief reading from the Gospel. For every day there are thus plenty of lessons you can extract—now from what the Lord did, now from what he said. Follow it all, and Christ will be formed mentally in you; it will then be left to you to reflect him in your life.

The following reflections are offered as an aid to this. They are the fruit of one soul; others may see something different in these same narratives. However, not only many, but all together will not exhaust what the Gospel contains. For which reason these reflections are offered not as a finished work, but only as an attempt, as something to awaken the philosophical reflection sleeping within each person, so that each one might himself ascend to the contemplation of Christ as is necessary for him, and imitate him in the way possible for him, according to the character and circumstances of his life.

To know with what dispositions we ought to approach the reading of the Gospel and understanding of its lessons, we must look to the dispositions with which the holy Luke approached the writing of the Gospel. As he disposed himself in writing, so we must dispose ourselves in studying what is written.

1) “«It seemed good”, – says the holy Luke, – “to me also»” (Lk. 1:3). An inclination—a will—is the beginning of a work. Where there is no willing, deeds either do not proceed or proceed unsuccessfully, being done under compulsion. You must know the Gospel, but approach this duty not as one dragged by a rope, but of your own accord, with warm desire and love; for is there anything on earth higher than what the holy Gospel speaks of? People throw themselves upon tales filled with empty fantasies, which merely tickle the taste, giving nothing of substance; but here is nothing but truth, and truth so precious to you. “«God appeared in the flesh»” (1 Tim. 3:16) to teach you, to redeem you, and to open to you the entrance to his heavenly kingdom. Even if this wondrous event did not touch you, you would still not help but be curious as to how all this came to pass, how it began, proceeded, and ended. But when all this has been done for you, not to have warm zeal to study such a consoling narrative means to show senseless deadness of spirit; for only the dead are not interested in what essentially concerns them. The holy Luke assures us that the Gospel contains events that were known to all Christians at that time. Everyone knew the holy Gospel, both old and young, both notable and humble, both those occupied with affairs and those having much free time. Why so? Because everyone loved to occupy themselves with it and preferred discourse about it to any other inquiry. And not only then, but at all times, fear of God and piety drew the Christian to the Gospel to nourish his spirit with it. Many do so even now—many both in monasticism and in the clergy and in the nobility and in the middle and lower classes. Is it not shameful, after this, to fall behind the host of true Christians? And even if the labor were great; but not subtle cleverness is offered but a simple narrative, understandable even to children. Only open your eyes for reading or your ear for hearing and add a little attention, and you will understand all. An inexhaustible wealth of vision will be drawn forth, and sweetness from it indescribable will be tasted; 2) therefore dispose yourself for this work so that you will then always approach it with a desire like that with which the hungry hasten to the table and the thirsty to cool water. But do not forget, in the meantime, to set aside all disputatiousness. Approach in simplicity of heart, with faith that all contained in the Gospel is undoubted, most perfect truth. «These,» says the holy Luke, are “«certified»” (transmitted with convincing proof and received with full conviction of their truth) “«things»” (Lk. 1:1). «For,» says Theophylact (of Bulgaria), «what concerns Christ is not merely known by bare tradition, but is truly, perfectly accurately, and fully proven» (Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 1). Why so? Because those “«from the beginning»” of the manifestation of God the Word incarnate were “«eyewitnesses and servants»” of him (Lk. 1:2). The holy Apostles recounted to believers all that they saw in the Lord and from the Lord and what they heard from his lips. Believers received it with open soul, and this was the true Gospel, written in hearts. The written Gospel came later, when the holy Apostles decided to transmit what was written in hearts by writings as well for its more certain preservation. Two of the twelve wrote, and two others under their direction. Many others also wrote, but all those gospels were still rejected by the Apostles themselves as not containing the pure truth. Pure truth is only in our four Gospels. Thus the holy Apostles transmitted to the Church, and thus the Church holds even now. Other gospels are heard even now, self-invented; but as then the Church did not receive false gospels, so now it rejects gospels invented by the spirit of the age. Close your ear to them too and do not wish to know any other gospel than that which is read in the Church, and accept all contained in it with faith, as the holy Church receives and understands it. We cannot build a building on unstable ground; nor can you build yourself up spiritually if you allow your mind to waver from the surmises instilled by false wisdom, uncertainties, and seeking their solutions. Leave this external labor to others; as for you, going within and into yourself and the Gospel and not being distracted by outside considerations, drink the water of spiritual life hidden here; 3) a bee without effort finds the flower, but uses effort to extract from it the honeyed particles. There is no effort for one of sense and simple heart to understand what almost every text of the Gospel says; but one cannot without effort extract all that is hidden in it, appropriate it, and introduce it into life. The evangelist approached the writing of the Gospel with “«careful investigation»” (Lk. 1:3). You, then, approach the reading and study of the Gospel and instruction of yourself by it with a desire carefully to penetrate all that is written. Do not read carelessly, only to fulfill the daily lesson by skimming from beginning to end; but read diligently so as to appropriate what is read and nourish your soul with it. Better to read one or several verses with benefit than to run through entire chapters without edification of the soul. The general law here is to engage your whole soul with what is read: a) the mind—with understanding and analysis of the thoughts hidden in what is understood; b) the heart—with awakening sympathy for the power of the truths; and c) the will—with readiness to follow those lessons that flow from them. When you have led a verse through this entire path, move to another, and, having done the same with it, turn to the third, and so on. When the soul is satisfied—that is enough. Here is the essence and measure of soul-saving reading of the holy Gospel!

We cannot do without struggle in this; for the mind in us suffers now from laziness and immobility, now from the scattering of thoughts; the heart—from dullness; the will—from stubbornness. The attentive one, penetrated with fear of God, easily overcomes these domestic enemies. Though the mind scatters in light fantasies and constantly flees from serious labor, gather it each time and seat it again at the abandoned task. Do not intentionally indulge in fantasies; cut short involuntary ones as soon as you notice them, not troubled that they are frequent, and not wearied by the labor of gathering attention. Empty-mindedness is a disease of the fallen mind. Pray that the Lord might heal it.

When attention is gathered, good thoughts will of themselves swarm forth from what is read and reflected upon. Now hold under them an open heart and compel it to receive them with warm feeling. As sparks from flint, falling on combustible matter, ignite it, so holy truths, falling on the heart, will then be implanted in it, awakening sympathy for themselves and drawing it forth from among the personal feelings and created impressions that cool it. When truth is received by the heart and loved—it has become ours, appropriated, and only from this moment begins the soul-saving nature of reading and spiritual reflection. The brightest thoughts are barren as long as the heart has not been touched by them. One word that has pierced the heart is worth for life more than an entire cloud of empty thoughts floating in the head without any effect upon the heart.

Truth, appropriated by the heart, always turns toward each person in the way it can be applied to his particular life. Such is the law: all the works of truth always pass through the heart. Fear of God, under whose action the will makes its decisions for the deeds indicated by truths understood by the mind and appropriated by the heart, conveys them. Here internal acts of good-doing occur—by resolution to do this or that or to do it constantly—but these inner impulses toward works pleasing to God must be given place also in actual life, so they do not remain mere unfruitfulness. By the establishment and adoption of rules for your external conduct and for the arrangement of your internal life, with firm resolve to undertake and execute them at once, even that same day, laborious and intelligent reading of the holy Gospel is concluded; 4) the fruit of such reading will be understanding how firmly established is all that has been transmitted to us in the Gospel about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and about the work of salvation that he accomplished. Read so as to attain that for which the holy Gospel was written: “«that you might know with certainty the words you have been taught»” (Lk. 1:4). In initial instruction, in childhood, we receive in general sketches knowledge about the deeds, miracles, teaching, suffering, death, and resurrection of the Lord; but when you begin to study the Gospel in the manner shown, you will gain about all this knowledge that is detailed and complete. When we gather together the accounts of all four evangelists, bring them into possible order and sequence, and consider them rightly, then all circumstances of each Gospel event become clear to us—the time, place, occasion, and everything as a whole will appear as one coherent, majestic picture. Clarity and completeness of knowledge pours forth gladness; the recognized coherence of the whole imparts firmness to knowledge; and all together build up the spirit, helping it to develop freely in its proper sphere, as a flower blossoms luxuriantly under the beneficial rays of the sun. Together with this completeness will come also depth of knowledge of the Gospel, or its deeper implantation in the heart. For if on each day we take one event or one teaching of the Lord, stop at it alone, penetrate it with all our attention, embrace it from all sides, understand its place in the whole, at the same time awakening appropriate feelings and dispositions—in a word, exhaust from it all that is essential for us and our life—what wonderful things will be revealed to us in even the simplest-seeming incidents and words! What sympathy will be formed from this toward everything in the Gospel, even that which in ordinary reading was always passed over without special trace—what treasuring will be felt toward every, from the first glance insignificant, particular! This deepening into the Gospel will transfer the Gospel into the heart itself, surrounding it there with deep conviction how elevated, divine, near to us, and dear to our heart everything in it is. When this happens, there will come also a firm, like life itself, conviction that everything in the Gospel is unchanging, true. As firmly as a tree stands, having sunk its roots deep into the earth, so the tree of faith acquires immobility before the wind of any doubts when all the Gospel is received by the heart and introduced into life. One who has tasted by deed the truth of truth will not entertain doubting of it, even if the whole world gathered to disturb him. To all he will have one answer: I know by heart that everything is as it is written in the Gospel. How can you persuade anyone that such food is bitter when, tasting it, he feels that it is sweet? So here too. To all crooked interpretations the heart will say: here all is holy, all is divine; no one among men can do this or speak thus. These are the words and deeds truly of God incarnate. And no one can write of all this that has been done and spoken in such a way as it is written, except him whom the spirit of God guides. These are not human writings but divine writings. What human writing combines such greatness and simplicity? What human writing, putting forth truths so elevated, preserves artlessness in language, expressions, and structure of the whole, and at the same time distinguishes itself by force and dignity inimitable for human writings? On the face of the Gospel lies the stamp of unchanging truth and its divine origin. In it is seen neither artifice nor enthusiasm. And the very words and events contained in it present the character of divine brightness, proclaiming the divinity of him who performed the one and uttered the other.

Thus, if you wish to instruct yourself properly through the Gospel, kindle in yourself zeal for this work and continue it with faith and diligent care, and you will receive the fruit—confirmation in the truth of all contained in the Gospel, and confirmation of all its truths in heart and life.

One who approaches the writing or study of history first of all makes known, and the other wishes to know, who that person is of whom the narrative will concern. So too, for one approaching understanding of the Gospel and instruction through it, it is necessary beforehand to have a bright understanding of him whose deeds and words are depicted in the holy Gospel. The holy Prophet, foreseeing his manifestation, exclaimed: “«Who will declare his generation?»” (Is. 53:8). And the people, seeing him who appeared on earth, were puzzled as to who he was and whence. The holy Gospel resolves the puzzle, definitively saying who he is, whence, and how he came. The evangelist Matthew, presenting his genealogy, gives to understand that he is a descendant of David and Abraham (Mt. 1:1). But the holy Luke goes back further along the line of holy patriarchs and reaches the first-created man; not stopping there, however, he goes beyond the limits of creatures and rises to God himself, saying that he is “«of God»” (Lk. 3:38). What does this “«of God»” mean is explained by the holy John the Theologian in his lofty (high) theology about God the Word. He is “«of God»” not as other creatures, but as God the Word, beginningless and consubstantial, as the Only-begotten Son of God, incarnate (Jn. 1:14, 18). And behold! He is the one of whom the holy Gospel proclaims! God in the flesh, or in human nature, true God and true man in one person. The holy Matthew and Luke in their genealogy declare how he is a man (Mt. 1:1-17, Lk. 3:23-28); and the holy John teaches how he is God (Jn. 1:1-4, 14, 18). But as those do not stop at his humanity alone but rise to his divinity, concluding the genealogy by showing that he is God, so this one does not contemplate only divinity but descends to his manifestation in the world through the Incarnation, revealing how the Word that existed before time, that was with the Father, “«became flesh and dwelt among us»” (Jn. 1:14). Those bear witness that he is not merely a man but also God; while this one shows that he is not God alone but also a man: all he is—he is one and the same—both God and man. To confess this constitutes the essence of faith in the person of Jesus Christ, so that neither humanity is swallowed up by divinity nor divinity is denied for the sake of humanity, but both are seen united in one alone—our Savior. This confession is the stone on which the Lord has built his holy Church, and therefore, without wavering, it has rejected everything contrary to this standard of faith. It rejected Arius, who diminished the divinity in the Savior, and the Docetae (a sect) who knew not his humanity, and Nestorius, who did not understand the wondrous union of divinity and humanity in one person of Jesus Christ. “«Such…»” was (Hebr. 7:26) the Savior and Restorer of the fallen! Uniting in himself both divinity and humanity, he, as God the Son, consubstantial with the Father, is one with him, and, as Son of Man, connatural with mankind, is one with them—he is one and the same. And thus he became the mediator, reuniting in himself fallen humanity with God. All believers, through the power of the mysteries instituted by him, become one with him, and through him and in him are united with God, in communion with whom, living and real, mankind was predestined to be at the very creation. And thus is realized the predestined union of all creation, or the predestined wholeness of all creation, disturbed by the Fall. One link fell away from God, but it was a link on which all else depended. One man fell, but through his fall disturbance was introduced into all creation, both material and spiritual, and coherence ceased to exist. The holy Paul tells us how in God incarnate again “«all things are united»” together, both “«things on earth and things in heaven,»” and the harmonious order predestined from of old is introduced into all that exists (Eph. 1:10). How could Jesus Christ accomplish such a work if he were not God? Such is his power in the wholeness of all that exists. As regards us human beings specifically, he showed the power to reunite us fallen ones with God, through reconciliation with him, because, as an infinite God, having brought a sacrifice of infinite worth to the infinite God, he satisfied his infinite righteousness and thus opened through himself to all “«access to” God “the Father,»” in whom is our true life (Eph. 2:18). We would either have ceased to exist altogether after the Fall, or if we had existed, would have existed as lifeless, having no true life in ourselves. But from the moment of the first promise in paradise (Gen. 3:15) he became our advocate, and we have continued and continue to live by virtue of this intercessory mediation, by virtue of the fact that from him there comes forth to us the life-giving life of God that brings us to life.

“«Blessed is God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” “who has blessed us… with every” “spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ!»” (Eph. 1:3). “«Let us believe” that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God»” and God; for only by believing thus shall we be worthy to possess true “«life… in his name»” (Jn. 20:31). Such is God’s eternal decree, that only one who believes in the Son of God as God can “«have life»” (Jn. 6:40). Over him, however, who does not believe in him as God and Redeemer, God’s wrath, whose power is eternal destruction, hangs. Take shelter then under the shadow of this confession of the divinity of Jesus Christ; for otherwise God’s wrath does not pass over. He who confesses this is God’s; but he who does not confess “«belongs to the antichrist»” (1 Jn 4:3). Now there are many filled with the spirit of antichrist; let us close our ears to their destructive words. They boast of wisdom; yet in fact they display only their own foolishness; for seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear: the heart of such people has grown dull. We, however, “«in the light of the face” of God incarnate “will go,” so that “in his name” we “may rejoice” forever» (Ps. 88:16-17).

The Theology of the Holy John the Theologian Concerning the Divinity of the Lord Savior and the Dispensation of Our Salvation

The most elevated thought to which the human mind can attain is thought about God. It elevates the mind itself, and with the mind the whole soul, and finally all of human nature. And it is elevated not because the mind can grasp anything in God, but by the sole contact, as it were, of the mind with God, by its single striving into the realm of divinity with detachment from all creatures. In God all is incomprehensible—God’s nature, the Trinity of persons, the attributes of divinity, and his actions. The first sound thought of the mind about God is the consciousness of his all-sided incomprehensibility, together with an unshakeable conviction of his being, all-perfection, and all-activity in general in creatures and especially in mankind. The latter one cannot help but confess, but how all this exists in God and in what forms—this the mind is powerless to grasp. The apprehension of incomprehensibility in everything, even what is confessed about God, is the most elevated act of the mind, is the true expression of its humble and reverent worship of God.

God is incomprehensible. But since mankind, who is destined for communion with God, cannot exist without knowledge of God, and moreover so as to advance to this consciousness rationally and intelligently, God was pleased to reveal himself to him insofar as he can understand, for in what is revealed there remains much that is incomprehensible; only that is revealed which and to the extent that he must confess to attain his ultimate end. Glory to the Lord! Though in this almost everything is seen as in dim glimmer, like in fog; yet the whole sum of knowledge given to us is such that it suffices to guide mankind to his destiny. It is in this form a light shining in a dark place. The essence of all that is revealed to us about God and divine things is set forth by the holy John the Theologian in a few verses at the beginning of his Gospel.

He begins with the mystery of the holy Trinity, proceeds to creation, points to the primordial state of the forebears and their Fall, to the preparation of the fallen for the reception of the Deliverer and the manifestation of the Forerunner. Further he depicts the manifestation on earth of God the Word in the Incarnation and how by some it was not received but by others it was received, and what fruit they had and have who received him, and concludes by pointing to the preeminence of the Revelation given by the Son of God over all that preceded it, or the culmination in him of God’s revelations to us: for after the Son of God, who else could give us a more perfect revelation about God? The essence of all this revelation and the whole content of our confession can be expressed in the following few words: God, worshipped in the Trinity, saves us fallen through the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Only-begotten Son of his.

The true God is God worshipped in the Trinity, and there is no other God except the God who is triune. One is the true God, and this God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All the confession about the holy Trinity the holy Church depicts, in the words of the great Athanasius, in the following propositions: «Universal faith consists in this: that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

For the person of the Father is other, the person of the Son is other, and the person of the Holy Spirit is other.

Yet the divinity of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one, their glory is equal, and their majesty is eternal. As is the Father, so is the Son, so is the Holy Spirit.

The Father is uncreated, and the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is incomprehensible, and the Son is incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit is incomprehensible. The Father is eternal, and the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal.

Yet not three eternal, but one eternal; likewise not three uncreated and not three incomprehensible, but one uncreated, one incomprehensible.

Similarly, the Father is Almighty, the Son is Almighty, the Holy Spirit is Almighty; yet not three Almighty ones, but one Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; yet not three Gods, but one God.

And likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; yet not three Lords, but one Lord.

For as the Christian truth compels us to confess each person separately as God and Lord, so universal piety forbids us to say that there are three Gods and three Lords.

The Father is by none created, not made, not begotten. The Son from the one Father is not created, not made, but begotten. The Holy Spirit from the Father is not created, not made, not begotten, but proceeds.

And in this Trinity there is no first or last, no greater or lesser, but the three persons are wholly coeternal and equal with one another; so that, as has been said before, worship must be offered to the Trinity in Unity and to Unity in Trinity.

Thus must understand the holy Trinity anyone who wishes to be saved» (Psalter with commentary).

Keep this confession in mind as you approach understanding the teaching of the holy John the Theologian about the divinity of the Son of God, lest somehow it occur to you that the Holy Spirit is excluded here. All that is said here about God the Son can and must be applied to God the Holy Spirit. The holy John does not mention him because he introduces us into contemplation chiefly of the Only-begotten Son of God, of whom all the Gospel speaks. God the Trinity is indivisible in himself, though distinct in persons; but our weak thought requires that the essence of the confession about each person be explained to it separately, so that it may then rise to the contemplation of their indivisibility in one divinity.

Christ is Risen! «In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was With God, and the Word Was God» (Jn. 1:1)

“«In the beginning»”—in what beginning? In the beginning of all beginnings. Whatever beginning you might imagine, the Word already existed before it; therefore do not trouble yourself imagining a beginning for the Word. It is beginningless, as the Father and the Holy Spirit are beginningless. One cannot say that first there was the Father, then the Son was born and the Holy Spirit proceeded: rather, as soon as the Father exists, the Son exists, and the Holy Spirit exists. As the Father is beginningless, so are they with the Father—beginningless both the birth and the procession. The Son is begotten beginninglessly—the Holy Spirit proceeds beginninglessly. Such is the manner of being of true God: in him beginninglessly is the Father unbegotten and unproceeding, the Son begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeding. Unbegettenness, begetting, and procession—these are the personal characteristics of the persons of the holy Trinity—express their eternal, incomprehensible relations to one another; but they do not suggest the thought that there was a moment when the Son and the Holy Spirit began to exist. Perhaps you think that this denies the very birth of the Son and the procession of the Holy Spirit? It denies them if you understand by them acts that had a beginning. If you allow this, then you must allow as well that God is not beginninglessly as he is—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—but entered into the fullness of his being through separate acts of self-manifestation. And if you allow this, you will thus distort the very concept of God. A God who is manifesting is not God. The true God beginninglessly is trinitarian in persons, with unity of nature—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit without confusion and without division. Birth and procession, of course, are the best terms for expressing the relationship of the persons of the holy Trinity in human language and for mankind; true, they better than any other words answer to the essence of those relationships when the Holy Spirit chose them and not others. But one cannot think that they express them completely, as they are—much less can they be applied to divinity in exactly the sense in which they are used in expressing created relationships. We cannot even say definitively how the birth of the Son differs from the procession of the Holy Spirit. Best of all, recognizing our impotence and ignorance in this respect, to always limit ourselves to the precise confession transmitted to us by God’s word and interpreted by the holy Church, that birth and unbegettenness are only the finest distinctive marks of the persons within the unity of divinity, fine enough, however, to bar any attempt to merge these persons.

So the holy John, in the words: “«in the beginning was the Word»”—said that the Word is beginningless «cobeginningless with the Father and the Spirit.» But that you, hearing of the beginninglessness, not think that the beginningless, and therefore, by itself existing particularly—a separate, distinct God from God the Father—and that you thus not fall into ditheism, and if that same reasoning is applied to the Holy Spirit—into tritheism—the holy John added: “«and the Word was with God»”, or was with God. The Son does not exist separately, but exists with God. As among men we say: the son does not live in a separate house but lives with his father, and everything is common to them; so of the Word John says: it “«was with»” the Father, to give to understand that they are undivided and that everything is common to them: not only creation and the rule of the world, which came to be, but before the beginning of any creature, everything was common—common, that is, the divine nature; for besides divinity there was nothing then. Thus: “«the Word was with God»”—means it was in communion in one and the same divine nature with the Father. For the divine nature, speaking numerically, is one, one and the same in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit; therefore they are consubstantial. In the words: “«the Word was»” from “God»”—the same is said that is said below in other words: “«the Only-begotten Son, …in the bosom of the Father»” (Jn. 1:18); or what the Lord himself said: “«I and the Father are one»” (Jn. 10:30); and again: “«I am in the Father, and the Father is in me»” (Jn. 14:10); or what the Apostle shows about the Holy Spirit, that he is the Spirit living in God and knowing all things of God (1 Cor. 2:11). By the proposition: “«the Word was with God»”—the holy John affirms the undividedness of the nature of the Son with the nature of the Father, while by the manner of expression he suggests the non-confusion of the hypostases, for in saying: “«the Word was with God»”—he gives to understand that it relates to the Father as a person to a person, that it is a hypostatic Word, not some force or attribute of divinity.

Not satisfied, however, with this indication, from which you could yourself have made the inference about the distinctness of the hypostasis of the Son from the face of the Father, and fearing that you might make this and yet might not, he thought it necessary to say directly: “«the Word was God»”. It is not some attribute of divinity, wisdom, for example, or creative and providential force, but God, the Word is God. All that you confess about God applies to him as well. In him all is—what enters into the concept of God. God is living and self-existing; so is the Word, or the Son (so is the Holy Spirit). God is beginningless, immutable, immeasurable; so is the Son (so is the Holy Spirit). God is omnipresent, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good, all-just; so is the Son (so is the Holy Spirit). God is Creator and Providence; so is the Son (so is the Holy Spirit). With such understanding of the Son and Spirit, who would dare to merge them into a single hypostasis of the Father? Their nature is common to them; it is one and the same for all, but hypostatic distinctness is separate. The holy John seemed to foresee Paul of Samosata and Sabellius, who did not understand the distinctness of the persons in one God. The first said: as in our soul are mind, will, and heart, so in divinity are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; these are, as it were, different powers of God’s single-person nature. The second taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not persons of the holy Trinity but different manifestations and revelations of one and the same single-hypostatic God. Such teachings, far from the truth, the holy John forestalled with one utterance: “«the Word was God»” (we infer: and the Holy Spirit). If the Word is God and the Holy Spirit is God, then they are already not impersonal forces of divinity but separate persons in one divinity; not manifestations or revelations of one God but separate hypostases, separately manifesting while maintaining unity of nature or with preservation of the consubstantiality of divinity.

On account of such understandings the persons of the holy Trinity might again appear too distinct—and from the distinctness of the persons, someone might pass to the thought of distinctness of nature as well. Therefore the holy John added: “«This was in the beginning with God»” (Jn. 1:2)—giving thereby to understand that the Word, with personal distinctness from the Father as God, beginninglessly remained in communion of one with the Father in nature. Here the holy evangelist gently combines in one proposition all the preceding truths—about beginninglessness, hypostasis, and consubstantiality—to impress these understandings more deeply in the minds and hearts of believers. One can, moreover, think that by this proposition the holy John wished to forestall yet another misunderstanding. Hearing that “«the Word was God,»” someone might think: God he may be, but not beginningless, not self-existent God, but God by his force and significance in creatures. Thus reasoned Arius, and even more after him the Arians. In their view the Son was God, but not uncreated. For them he was the first created being, from which all else then came forth and by which all is ruled. Everything in creatures is produced through him; but he himself is not consubstantial with the Father, not one with him, but was produced by God the Father out of nothing. Against this the holy John set, or more precisely, the Holy Spirit who guided him, his final word: “«This was in the beginning with God.»” The Arian Son received a beginning from God the Father, even though before any other creature; but the true Son of God, God the Word, beginninglessly was with the Father, in communion of one with the Father in divine nature,—or beginninglessly was and is consubstantial with the Father. Therefore it is impious to think that he received a beginning and exists out of nothing. Then he is not God, and he who bows to him will bow not to God but to a creature and will not thereby be a true worshipper of the true God.

Thus in a few words the holy John combined all theology about the mystery of the holy Trinity. All his concern, as you see, was to prevent occasions for dividing nature and merging hypostases. For this purpose he selected word after word, with both restraint from confusing prolixity and with sufficient fullness, to make all understand that God must be confessed as triune, «neither confusing the hypostases nor dividing the substance.»

Behold, that is what our Lord Savior is in the mystery of the holy Trinity! The Only-begotten Son of God, beginningless, a hypostatic Word, consubstantial with the Father, and God.

«All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

Having depicted the divine nature of the Word as it is in the holy Trinity, the holy John points to his creativity and transfers us from the contemplation of the beginningless trinitarian divinity to the contemplation of how from the beginningless all creatures received their beginning.

“«All things were made through him.»” The same is said as by the Apostle Paul: “«that through him all things were created—things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or authorities or powers or dominions; all things were created through him and for him»” (Col. 1:16). Or in another place: “«You, O Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands»” (Hebr. 1:10). Or again: “«yet for us… there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things »” (1 Cor. 8:6).

To create, to give existence, can only he who by nature is the self-existent one—God beginningless and infinite. But that he not again give occasion to separate him from the Father and the Holy Spirit, the holy John, deepening the thought about the divinity of the Word, adds: “«and apart from him nothing that exists was made.»” No creature has received existence without him, apart from him, without his participation (as Holy Hilary expresses it in his treatise on the Trinity). The Son of God is not the creator apart from the other hypostases of divinity, but jointly acting with them. God the Word created all in communion of one divine creative nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The actions of divinity outward are the undivided actions of the three hypostases. Therefore, Creator Father, Creator Son, Creator Holy Spirit, yet not three creators but one Creator, by one creative action of divinity. The Prophet David, depicting this in one utterance, sings: “«by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the breath of his mouth all their host»” (Ps. 32:6). Our weak thought, in contemplating almightiness in creatures, is ready to attribute it to God the Father; in contemplating wisdom, is ready to attribute it to God the Son; in contemplating life-giving power, is ready to attribute it to God the Spirit: but sound confession does not dare distinguish in the work of creation separate acts of the divine hypostases, but believes that creation is the work of God worshipped in the Trinity, undivided. The Son and the Holy Spirit are not cooperators with the Father in creation, but undivided co-workers with him. By one act of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit was creation accomplished. Therefore in creation there are no traces that reflect the separate actions of the hypostases: but there is a sharp trace indicating the trinity of persons. This universal, passing through all degrees of creatures, threefold character: three cosmic forces—light, heat, weight; three planetary—electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity; three elemental seats of these forces—air, water, earth—and three divisions of inorganic bodies; three functions in plants and three of their main divisions; three functions in animal organisms, over the three plant functions; three parts in mankind—spirit, soul, and body, and three functions in each; and of the angels we know that they have three main orders, each of which again divides into three. Is not this threefoldness a witness to the trinity of God the Creator?

What moved God to create? God the Trinity, as the fullness of being and perfections, is self-sufficient in himself and all-blessed; he cannot have any need in anything, for he has all. If then he was moved to create the world and all that is in it, he did this not from any necessity but from completely free will, “«according to the purpose of his will»” (Eph. 1:5). There can be no talk of compulsion from without here. If there were some internal necessity, in the form of some need of the divine nature, so that creativity were an inseparable essential attribute of divinity, then the act of creation would have to be recognized as beginninglessly or eternally active in God, and creation as coeternal and cobeginningless with God, which cannot be allowed.

By the creation of this immeasurable world, nothing was added to divine fullness nor was anything diminished from it. And yet the world is not foreign to God but his own. The goodness that willed the beginning of the world underlies both the continuation of its being. An expression of this is the utmost blessedness of all creatures, which constitutes the fundamental idea of the order of the world and the fundamental tone of the movement of the phenomena of the world’s existence, both physical and moral. In this consists the purpose of God’s providential actions, which faith indicates and to the clear vision of which, though unsuccessfully so far, the mind strives, not losing, however, hope for success. For this one must see through the visible into the invisible; but the visible stops and blocks the path to sight—therefore all is dark. Only faith firmly believes that finally all will appear in the light of perfect excellence and blessedness.

It too, joining this hoped-for end with the beginning, sees the predetermined plan of all existing and occurring in the original plan of the world. When and how in eternity all that is temporal was predetermined and then realized—this is God’s mystery. But it was predetermined, and what now exists and occurs exists and occurs according to that predetermination. In this lies God’s wisdom. And divine wisdom itself speaks of herself in the words of the Wise one: “«The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts long ago:»” and then adds: “«when he established the heavens, I was there, …when he marked out the foundations of the earth, I was beside him like a master worker. I was delighted every day, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world»” (Prov. 8:22-23, 27, 29-31). Thus the beginning, the continuance, and the completion of creation—all according to the wise predetermined plan, established before the ages. When, completing creation, God said: “«behold,»” all “«was very good»” (Gen. 1:31)—this meant that all fully corresponded to God’s wise plan and intentions. To set the seal of approval on all that is occurring or the movement of the world’s existence, the time has not yet come. Only the all-seeing eye of God sees how all is directed toward this, so that at the end of all movement it may be uttered: “«behold,»” all “«was very good,»” so that all may see and confess it—and this will be. How one would wish the mind to grasp all this and express it definitely! But this is not given to it. No words in human language exist for its expression. And Revelation falls silent, saying but little of this hidden mystery of God. Accept then this with all your soul and, being content with that for now, await fuller explanation in the age to come.

From all that we know about the beginning of the world and from the beginning of the world until now, we can confidently say that the material world is destined to be the arena for the development of rationally free creatures, being also transformed along with their elevation to higher degrees of perfection. The rationally free creatures are destined to godlike perfection and, as a result, to living communion with God and all-sided blessedness; yet so that this destiny is to be attained through struggle with trials on the path to this goal. A limited rational freedom cannot be established in the beginning in doing what is pleasing to God except through experiences of struggle with that which can lead away from it. Struggle is the means; but since it stands foremost, it becomes the immediate goal, beyond which the further, final one appears. And one can say that this struggle has served as the norm for the ordering of the world and its governance. All is directed toward the fact that rationally free creatures could stand firm in struggle against adversities. It is not the will of God that there be no adversities for rational freedom, but that it might stand firm against them, however strong they may be. And thus throughout the entire extent of the world there is struggle, in the current period of the world’s existence. And the first-created, shortly after creation, encounter struggle, and in the world of spirits it existed before that. Since then until now and from now to the end of the world everything will be struggle. The closing act of it is indicated in the following words: “«To the one who conquers I will give a seat with me»” and to the one who conquers “«I will give… a crown»” (Rev. 3:21, 2:10)—and so forth and so forth. Struggle then; do not dream of rest while breath remains in you, looking upon the great reward.

Our progenitors, as soon as they were introduced into life and began to act, at once encountered struggle and battle. They did not stand firm; but if they had stood firm, struggle would not have ceased but would have accompanied them step by step—it would have accompanied their offspring too. After the Fall, only the manner of struggle changed, and in aid to those struggling there were required extraordinary divine actions and institutions; the very substance of human life or the task of life remained the same: struggle. Struggle more eagerly and earnestly all the more because for your success in this struggle the Son of God was incarnate and suffered. According to the Apostle, even “«before the foundation of the world»” you were chosen to this, because you were chosen to holiness and blamelessness, which are unthinkable without struggle (Eph. 1:4-5).

Thus everything is from the Lord for you: you are created by him, redeemed, adopted, called to eternal blessedness, and furnished with means to attain it. Love him then and surrender yourself to him with all your soul, all your thoughts, and all your heart, and serve him, sparing not your life.

The Lord—Providence Over All

“«In him was life, and that life was the light of mankind»” (Jn. 1:4). If the words «life» and «light» refer only to mankind, that is, thus: “«in him was life” for mankind, “and that life” was “the light of mankind»;” then in the text there would be only the thought that God the Word exists only for people. But the structure of the speech compels us to distinguish the thoughts contained in these two positions of the verse. There would be no reason to repeat the word «life»—in the second position if in the first «life» did not have other objects besides mankind to give life to. Then it would have been said: “«in him was life and… light for mankind.»” But since it is said separately: “«in him was life, and that life was the light of mankind»” then necessarily we must understand different objects; thus in the first will be: in God the Word is the life of all things, the being and life of all creation, while in the second: in him is light for mankind.

“«In him was life.»” Life here in him is not in the sense that the Son has life in himself as the Father does (Jn. 5:26), for the evangelist has already said this when he confessed him as God—and not that all existing and living received from him being and life; for this too has just been said in the preceding verse: “«all things were made through him»”—but in the sense that all that has received from him being is sustained by him, preserved, and governed by him. Being and life of everything have their foundation in him, his all-sustaining and all-preserving power. So speaks the holy Chrysostom: «Having spoken of the creation of all by the Son, he now proceeds to the depiction of his providence over all, saying: “«in him was life.»” The holy John says here the same as the Apostle Paul; according to his words, the Lord Savior sustains all “«by the word of his power»” (Hebr. 1:3), and “«in him all things hold together»” (Col. 1:17). The same is said of God the Father too—that he “«gives” “all creatures life and breath and everything,»” and that “«in him… we live, …we move and have our being»” (Acts 17:25, 28). And the Holy Spirit is the life-giving Spirit, creating and renewing all (Ps. 103:30)! God’s providential actions are the undivided actions of God the Trinity. Providence is not an exclusive or preeminent action of one hypostasis but is the work of the one God who is three in persons. The Father is not more the Providence than the Son and the Holy Spirit; the Son not less than the Father and the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit not less than the Father and the Son. Almighty Father, Almighty Son, Almighty Holy Spirit: but not three almighty ones, one Almighty one. The holy John writes here of God the Word and speaks of him in this verse as the Providence, not excluding God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, as before he spoke of his creativity, not excluding the creativity of the Father and the Spirit. The words said there: “«apart from him nothing that exists was made»”—can be understood here thus: apart from him nothing has life, that is, without his participation nothing has life, movement, and being. All is sustained or borne by him, but not exclusively, but in communion of one divine all-sustaining and providential action with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

God’s providential all-sustaining action is expressed in the fact that the Lord preserves all that exists, provides for everything, and governs all, or directs everything to its appointed end. The laws by which all occurs are hidden in the will of God; they are incomprehensible to us and could not be grasped even if they were revealed, because of the vastness of all that exists and the limitless extent of movement in what occurs. Therefore do not trouble yourself investigating: it is not your business. Your business is one thing: to accomplish the salvation of your soul. All else rests in God’s hands—firm and strong ones. That all is held by God—firmly believe this, and you will thus render divine worship to the almighty, wise, and all-good all-sustaining God.

A creature that has no being in itself, but was called to being out of nothing, cannot continue its own being but hangs over the abyss of nothingness, at every moment ready to be swallowed by it. The almighty will of the triune God, which called it into being, holds it over this abyss. God willed—and creatures appeared; and creatures continue to exist because God wills that they continue to exist. The continuation of the being of creatures is their uninterrupted creation. The will of God for the continuation of the being of creatures is the basis of their life: on it all is founded.

God’s action in creatures is not limited to the mere preservation of their being. The Lord said: “«My Father is still working, and I too am working»” (Jn. 5:17), indicating thereby God’s immediate care for creatures and God’s never-ceasing actions in them in the arrangement of their well-being. The world is beautifully arranged, its parts are harmoniously joined together, and in the immeasurable whole and in its parts simple but powerful laws are everywhere placed, all holding things in order by God’s will. God preserves this order, and the world moves as directed. But in the midst of this, flowing from God’s will, unchangeable, once and for all established order of the world’s existence and the creatures comprising it, God is pleased to manifest also his special actions, immediate ones, not having their source in the world’s forces and laws but in God’s immediate will. The need for these interventions of immediate divine actions in the realm of phenomena of the world arises from the limited freedom of rational creatures. If everything were mechanism in the world, the unchangeable laws alone would suffice; but since in the world there is a realm of free actions, there is necessary for their regulation free action upon them as well. The spiritual world, consisting of rationally free but limited beings, can take on false and perverted directions. If the purpose of the material world is in the spiritual, then clearly in the grant of freedom is placed the possibility of deviation and from such intentions of God that encompass the entire world. Therefore in that moment when God placed it to be for rationally free creatures, he placed as well that there be special providential actions of his by which he is pleased to enter into the course of the world’s events to point to rational creatures the proper paths, to return them to these paths in cases of deviations from them, or to set them within such limits in which they could not act destructively for others. God could have arranged the world such that it would itself flow to its end by the forces, laws, and order given to it, like someone who has constructed a clock that needs neither winding nor repair. And then his goodness would be manifested in preserving all as it is arranged initially—in approving contemplation of how all flows purposefully—and in the benevolence of his love toward creatures according to their degrees. But he willed to arrange it otherwise, because then from all the fullness of creation he would have to exclude the rationally free creatures, the higher links in the chain of creatures, the crown of creation. Having thus chosen the best and allowed the possibility of disturbance of moral order and on account of it physical, God remains not a resting spectator of the bright course of the world’s existence but a merciful all-worker in directing creatures to their ultimate aims. Such was his holy and wise will. Rationally free creatures, step by step, move toward their predetermined perfection, falling and rising, deviating from the right paths and entering upon them again, drawing away from God and again clinging to him. And while the world flows in the established order—in this, almost always disorderly, realm of the spiritual falls the immediate divine action, in enlightenment, strengthening, and establishment of saving orders, drawing, when necessary, into service for these moral purposes and phenomena in the physical world. Rational creatures—in struggle, under God’s protection, by his help and leadership. Therefore, as soon as mankind appeared in the light, God himself immediately, before he would encounter struggle, makes provision for the manner of the life before him and for the threatening dangers. After the Fall, again God determines the character of the sorrowful life of the guilty and points to the basis of hope for better days ahead. Then a series of God’s immediate actions did not cease in mankind.

«And That Life Was the Light of Mankind» (Jn. 1:4)

The all-sustaining actions of God the Word in the sum of creatures are only life: “«for in him we live, …and move and have our being»” (Acts 17:28). In rational creatures, however, his actions are not only life but also light—he does not only sustain their life and being but illuminates them, teaches, guides. In other creatures he acts by his almightiness: he commands, and all is directed according to his will; rational creatures he illuminates, revealing his will to their consciousness so that they themselves freely then walk according to its direction. He gave them freedom and does not force it but, prescribing commandments as law, leaves it to the free decision of each whether to follow them or not. He persuades them, presents the supreme necessity to follow his will, depicts the bitter consequences of disobedience, even coordinates external events to direct freedom toward the path of his will, but binds no one’s will. Whether inwardly inspiring something to mankind, or sending an angel, or placing a word in the mouths of the chosen—the meaning of his precepts to people is always one: behold, fire and water are set before you; toward which you wish, there stretch your hand. Then the Lord so acts that from each he expects willing service to himself in fulfilling his will. God placed the foundation for such order of action in the structure of human’s very spiritual nature.

Material forces are dark forces; the life of plants and animals is like the flickering of light at the stars and moon. But human spiritual life—its image is the bright radiance of the sun. It has been given inner self-illumination, with illumination of all its relations, and precisely in self-consciousness mankind, being conscious of itself, is conscious of the supreme Creator and sovereign, feeling in the process his complete dependence on him and the duty to serve him with all the powers of his being in hope of abiding in his eternal favor—is conscious of his external relations to those like himself and to all creatures—is conscious of how he ought to conduct himself and whether he does conduct himself as he should. In this inner light of mankind, poured into him in his creation in the image and likeness of God, lies the light of man. The Lord, acting by his all-sustaining power and preserving human’s spiritual nature, preserves this light and is, by that very fact, already light for him. But he is light even more in that to all rays of the natural light of the human spirit he is pleased to add his own divine light, by the action of which the personal light of mankind becomes, properly speaking, light—true, definite, and all-determining, causing all things to appear in their true outlines. This inflow of spiritual light into mankind (and to all spiritual creatures higher than him), so necessary for him that, according to Revelation, we do not see a single moment’s sojourn without it for mankind called into being. Upon first opening his eyes, he already saw before him God, who had explained to him what he is and how he ought to live and act. These determinations of God impressed their seal on the directedness of the consciousness of human’s spirit, which in themselves would have remained undetermined and, consequently, dimly lit. From this determination they have never departed; but have been preserved and are preserved in mankind even until now and will be preserved forever. The rays of this light are: fear of God—with the feeling of complete dependence and the duty to serve God; conscience—with the assurance of being pleasing to God through fulfilling its demands; dissatisfaction with anything created—with the hope of thoroughly satisfying well-being in eternity.

One living according to these indications of divine light abides in god-likeness for which he was created and thus stands in the closest relation to the Son of God, who is “«the radiance of glory” of the Father “and the image of his substance»” (Hebr. 1:3). The all-sustaining Word of God is thus “«light of mankind»” (Jn. 1:4): light that illuminates with knowledge of the truths about God and God’s deeds; light that indicates to conscience what is good and what is evil and inspires toward the doing of the one and the shunning of the other; light that fills the blameless heart with gladness from the feeling of God’s favor and expectation of all-sided blessedness in him. From of old he is for mankind truth, way, and life. The receiver of this light stands at his goal and, filled with light, is all-blessed. Such was the state of paradise of the first-created. It was bright from the clarity of communion with God and knowledge of God, from the purity of conscience and the absence of disturbance in all relations, from the great gladness of innocent and all-satisfied life. The Fall disturbed all this. Upon the spiritual sphere of mankind fell darkness.

«And the Light Shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness Has Not Overcome it» (Jn. 1:5)

By this brief position the holy John outlines the state of mankind before the manifestation of the Lord Savior in the world. There came darkness from the Fall, but it did not extinguish the light: it shone in the darkness and shines. There remained still the natural light, but no longer in the brightness that it had before, and it could not retain the same character that it had in the original arrangement. Consciousness and conscience suggested that the former manner of mankind’s spiritual relations could not be now; new orders and institutions were required. What exactly was needed, mankind could not have invented. God himself appeared and arranged all. The external order of life was changed, in correspondence with the internal condition, into a sorrowful one and became, as it were, a penance for the repenting. For the regulation of spiritual disturbance and the dispersion of internal darkness there was given to consciousness and conscience the promise of salvation in the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), with corresponding institutions. With the word of this promise light shone in the darkness of the Fall, which did not go out then but continued to spread wider and wider and became brighter and brighter through continuous inflows of new rays of God’s revelation.

At first the whole of mankind was equally a partaker of this light. Until the dispersion of mankind over the face of the earth, God’s revelations and guiding rules were communicated to all undividedly. With their dispersion the universality of revelations ceased. But the dispersed peoples took with them all that had been revealed by God up to that point and lived by the light of it until the manifestation of the Lord, and many live by it even now. This light did not remain in them in full and pure form; but was obscured by clouds of superstitious additions invented subsequently by the peoples themselves to the original revelation. However, even darkened, it did not completely go out. Its glimmers are visible in the fundamental beliefs common to all peoples.

That the light kindled on earth by the promise of salvation not go completely out, the Lord was pleased to choose a special people in whom he continued to preserve this promise in power and to multiply the light of it by detailed revelations about all that concerns its fulfillment. Filled with such indications are the prophetic writings, which the holy Peter rightly called a lamp shining in a dark place. “«We have the prophetic word more certain,»” he says, “«to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts»” (2 Pet. 1:19). These words give the best interpretation of what is meant by the light shining in darkness according to John and how it shone. Light shone in the darkness of the Fall, and the lamp glowed in the dark place of exile of the fallen in the people of Israel through the prophetic word, and among other peoples by means of the natural light and those revelations which they took with them upon the dispersion over the earth—and which, toward the end, began to pass from Israel to them. This light was concentrated in the person of the Savior and emanated from him, illuminating all. He is and always has been light for those fallen in spiritual darkness and held by it.

That the light shone in darkness is God’s work. In what, then, does the work of mankind consist? In receiving the light and using its illumination. Was this so? The darkened in understanding did not understand it; dark strivings opposed it; dark opposing forces opposed it and sought in every way to extinguish it. But this evil attitude of the darkened toward the light did not take away the power of the shining of light and the possibility of its illuminating those who sought light and were ready to receive it and use it for salvation. Darkness did not overcome the light…. There were those, both among Israel and among other peoples, who thirsted for light and sought it from on high. They immediately became manifest as soon as the marks of the approach of the Lord’s coming showed themselves, and especially when the Forerunner proclaimed that soon the sun of righteousness—Christ the Lord—would appear. Later, the preaching of the holy Apostles gathered them all, scattered throughout the face of the earth, and formed from them the Church of the saints, which, in its turn, became a lamp, shining in the dark place of this world, not of itself but by the power of the Lord, who became the head of all.

Darkness of the Fall is Sinful Darkness

Sin, having come, brings darkness to the soul, darkening its consciousness and conscience and bringing confusion and disorder into all its actions. Awareness of God departs, or rather it does not depart but is driven away; along with it fear of God, if not disappearing, weakens to impotence in determining the will. The voice of conscience becomes indefinite and inarticulate, and deeds begin to be conducted as it happens; a person goes about groping, as at night. Taste is developed toward things not satisfying but only irritating the various needs, which contradict each other and constantly toss the heart about; as in a whirlwind of dust or a blizzard, this holds a person. This darkness of disorder and confusion of thoughts, feelings, and desires, having begun with the Fall, does not cease to be on earth and covers all living in sin. But the light of God, born in this darkness with the first words of the promise of salvation, does not fade in sinful struggles. Hope of salvation always lives in the sinner’s heart as long as he does not fall into desperation and from it into despair. However guilty anyone may be, he thinks that all is not yet lost, that there is still a way out and a possibility to correct things. This hope sustains and the intention to correct. Though its fulfillment is postponed day by day, the thought of it does not completely disappear but comes and goes. And here is the light shining in sinful darkness—the hope of salvation and the thought—today, tomorrow, to cast off sin. At times, stronger rays flow into this feeble light from the remnants of the original light placed in human nature and never dying. Now fear of God visits, arising from accidental or intentional awareness of impartial truth and indescribable goodness of God; now conscience is irritated and raises its voice, clearly presenting the ugliness of deeds and punishing them with its incorruptible judgment; now disgust and aversion come upon the vacant delights of vanities feeding sin, in connection with the feeling of unreliability of the supports on which rests a pleasant life, or there blows a breeze of the gladness of a life free from all these bonds, much demanding and giving nothing. Then the soul has much light, and its whole darkness caused by sin is sufficiently illuminated. With all this, this light is no more than the light that shone in the darkness of the Fall to pagans. His indications are indefinite. He only convicts the wrong, not defining precisely the right and not pointing to the way out of the miserable state of sinfulness. This definiteness it gains when comes to him the evangelical word, as light come to the lot of pagans, gained definiteness from the prophetic word. The evangelical word, living and effective, completes interior illumination and drives away sinful darkness finally. Those heeding the first light do well; but only under the condition that they do not content themselves with it alone but receive it as an awakener to earnest seeking and that the day of Christ illuminate and the morning star of saving faith in Christ rise in their hearts too. That is a preparatory action, and acceptance of the evangelical word is a completing action. That is the forerunner, and this is Christ himself.

The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

“«There came a man sent from God; his name was John»” (Jn. 1:6). It has been said above that the light of the promise shone in darkened mankind, supported and broadened by providential arrangements of the Lord himself. For all this, this was a light giving weak illumination of the divine order of things. At the last thrust of darkness and the multiplication of false lights, the state of the spiritual condition before the Lord’s manifestation in the world cannot be called other than dim. And for five hundred years before the birth of Christ prophecies ceased as well. Amid such dimness, the sudden appearance of true light would have blinded everyone, even those capable of receiving it. And thus John is sent before him as the morning star before the sun, shining with borrowed light to gradually make ready through gradualness to receive and true light.

“«He came for a witness, to testify to the light»” (Jn. 1:7). The prophets from afar pointed to the promised one: but since Israel was raised on the prophets, there had to be a nearest prophet, a nearest pointer, who would give tangible assurance that there is the one promised and whom all await. This was necessary for the greatness of the work and for the great danger from not recognizing. Not recognizing someone unindicated, they could make excuses: now there is none. John is a mirror that gathered all the rays of prophetic light and directed them upon Christ the Savior. To oppose it is possible only through stubbornness and blindness. How important was the testimony of John in the chain of God’s testimonies about himself was shown by the Lord himself, who repeatedly turned his discourse to John, especially when, in the last discourse to the Jews in the temple, he wished to convince the blinded; and the experts in the law could say nothing against it (Mt. 21:23-27, Mk. 11:27-33, Lk. 20:1-8).

“«So that all might believe through him»” (Jn. 1:7). The nearest indication of the one promised was all the more necessary because the promised one was to appear under a very great veil of humility. Those having sound eyes, like Simeon and others, could have seen and understood him of their own (Lk. 2:25-32). To those blinded there was nothing to say: they remained in blindness even at John’s testimony. But the majority of souls immature and dim-sighted, unable to recognize the promised one by themselves, could go after him by the unquestionable indication and be finally assured of the truth through communion with him. John was for them an indispensable guide. From this class even the Apostles were, and then all others. The first class embraces the chosen, very few in number.

“«He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light»” (Jn. 1:8). As the time drew to a close, there were those in Israel who awaited deliverance, and among pagans there were many who thirsted for true illumination, as testified by their acceptance of the old revelation. Therefore, when the sent John appeared, those sensing the approach of spiritual revival were stirred and flowed to John in hope in him to meet the sought deliverance from darkness and consoling illumination by divine light. But he was not that of which they hastily thought; he was not light but only sent before him as his herald and Forerunner. As a servant of truth sent from the true God, he himself testified to this without hesitation, and from himself sent all to the true light. Souls thirsting for light were like maidens; and he, as the friend of the bridegroom, sent them to this Bridegroom. God was pleased to establish such an order of the manifestation of true light—that there be a Forerunner, an indicator of it. And in this order is testimony to truth; in it is testimony that John is from God; and insofar as he is from God, so from God is he testified by him. Falsehood could not have such an order. Neither could a false messiah withstand a Forerunner without suspicion and confusion; nor could a false forerunner stand in his false forerunning without claiming himself a higher title. In this lies truth, that the Forerunner, himself so lofty, humbly declines from himself the higher title, saying that the one all await is not he but comes after him, the one he will point out and truly has pointed out.

Such is the significance of John in the economy of the establishment of the saving path for us poor ones!

But this order, begun once, does not cease. John, sent from God to testify, did not leave the stage and will not depart to the end of the age. The true light is in the Lord. But no one comes to it without witnesses. Apostles replaced John, and after them, shepherds and teachers—and in the Church there is always testimony indicating the unerring light in the Lord. Is a soul troubled in conscience and seeks a reconciler—the shepherd points him to the cross and in the mystery of penance reconciles him with God and establishes peace in him. Does he grow weak in struggle and seek strengthening—the shepherd points him to the source of life-giving powers in the mystery of the body and blood of the Lord and gives him to drink of them, joining him with the Lord through communion. How many need indication and explanation of truth! The shepherd points out this truth to them in the voice of the Church, which is the echo of the voice of its very head, and quiets the troubled and troubling doubts. The shepherd is a bride-leader of souls; therefore woe to shepherds who stay souls coming to them. The organ of the shepherd’s word—the prophetic and apostolic utterances; and therefore woe to shepherds who invent their own images of utterances! And woe to souls who, instead of these appointed indicators, content themselves with or follow their own unreliable individual perceptions or the indications of self-appointed leaders!

Characteristic Features of True Light

Thus John was not uncertain light. True, “«he was a lamp, burning and shining»” (Jn. 5:35), like all the God-enlightened luminaries: but in all of them the light was not their own light but borrowed; they were not sources of light…. The source of light is outside and beyond them. As planets direct the observer to the sun for explanation of their brightness, so all the God-enlightened point to the beginning of their light in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is “«the true light,»” the genuine and only light illuminating “«everyone who comes into the world»” (Jn. 1:9).

Thus the characteristic feature of true light is illumination of all. This does not mean that everyone is already illuminated by it—no, many remain unilluminated by it—but that if anyone is illuminated, he is illuminated only by him. Whoever is not illuminated by him shows only a semblance of illumination, no matter how they call him illuminated. Apart from the Lord Jesus there is no light; all else is darkness and murky gloom.

The illumination granted by Jesus Christ is spiritual illumination. Spiritual darkness consists of ignorance of God and his good intentions toward us, connected with the absence of fear of him, from confusion of conscience and sinful impurities with negligence and carelessness, and from heart tormented by passions and satisfied by nothing, with spiritual tastelessness and insensibility. The Lord, and only the Lord, takes away this threefold darkness and fills the soul with all-sided light. From him comes fear of God, awakened by the word of truth handed down by him about God and our complete dependence on him; from him—peace of conscience through the forgiveness of sins by the power of his death and strength to withstand all that can disturb conscience; from him—and satisfaction of heart, satisfied only by him. He wipes away every tear, removes every burden, and gives complete rest according to his promise: “«Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest»” (Mt. 11:28). Therefore whoever clings to the Lord becomes so bright that even strangers can see it in the brightness of his face and in the gladsome state of his spirit, reflected in words, deeds, and movements. Within them is full of light. They are bright from the enjoyment of goods received and hope to receive yet better and greater goods—bright with love and goodness, bright with piety and childlike godly fear. And all this the Lord Jesus Christ gives them, the incarnate Son of God, who taught us the truth, suffered for us, merited for us the spirit of grace, and opened to us the doors of the heavenly kingdom, into which he himself has already entered as Forerunner, drawing us all to himself and awaiting us all. There are many self-appointed lights, but not one of them drives away our darkness or gives true brightness. May the Lord grant all who seek illumination to find the true light and not be led astray by these semblances, which do not illuminate but increasingly darken!

The second characteristic feature of true light is hiddeness. “«He was in the world, and the world was made by him, yet the world did not recognize him»” (Jn. 1:10). It does not shine such that, whether you wish or not, you must be illuminated by it. In itself he is all-bright, all-radiating, all-illuminating; yet only his own, only those who open in themselves the corresponding organs of their spirit, perceive his light and receive brightness from it. All in the material and human world proceeds in its accustomed course: and spiritual illumination is accomplished in its hidden ways, which proceed undisturbed amid all the turmoil and changes of external circumstances, like a ray of light through air stirred by wind.

So it has always been, so it is, and so it will be. So the Lord was pleased to ordain it, first of all on account of the character of this light, which is life-giving; but the paths of life or life-giving actions and movements of it are everywhere hidden from the eyes of the curious; and then to avoid casting pearls before those who could trample them (Mt. 7:6), so that the brightness of light not bind free will but illuminate only those wishing and seeking and draw to itself only the worthy and fit, so that those going to the light show a certain self-activity and have merit in that they have recognized the true light. This is like parables. In parables truth is hidden; one who has the beginning of or premonition of truth understands it, but another understands nothing in it: for his mind’s bent, rules of life, and heart’s tastes are completely different. All his store of experiences and concepts is different. The same here too: for understanding and receiving true spiritual light from the Lord there is needed a ready organ of the spirit. Whoever does not have this does not recognize and will not receive it. As only he who has ears to hear hears, so only he who has eyes to see sees.

The organ for receiving the light of truth is the spirit placed in our nature. It exists in everyone, and no force is able to destroy it. Suppress, stifle, clog it is possible, but destroy it cannot. The spirit in us is fear of God or the feeling of divinity with the consciousness of our dependence on him, conscience, and dissatisfaction with anything created. He who is not absorbed in the world, keeps conscience, and preserves fear of God will recognize the true light in the Lord at once, as soon as it is proclaimed to him. Sin suppresses our spirit, closes the organ for recognizing and receiving light—the Lord: but consciousness of one’s sinfulness opens it again and makes it ready to meet the Lord. Publicans, sinners, and repenting women—all flowed to the Lord as soon as they met him and all were illuminated. Such recognized the Lord; those of another kind did not. The elders of the people almost all did not recognize him and led the people astray from the path of truth. “«Have any of the rulers believed in him? …but this people»” (Jn. 7:48-49). The people felt his power and clung to him. They were darkened by those for a time: but as soon as the light of the resurrection illuminated them, they again went fearlessly after him. Even before the ascension, more than five hundred brothers saw him on the mountain; after the descent of the Holy Spirit, at once three thousand cling to him; shortly after—five thousand more; then the number of such grew and grew, and the light of Christ, having illuminated all capable of illumination in Israel, soon spread beyond its bounds and shone throughout the world. “«To all the earth their voice has gone out»” (Rom. 10:18)—the gospel proclamation, and all capable of illumination by the light of Christ are illuminated and are illuminated by him. But throughout all ages this has been accomplished and is accomplished secretly, invisibly, by ways known to God alone. And among those bearing the name of Christ not all are partakers of his light. External enrollment in the flock of Christ is not yet sure testimony of inner illumination. The worldly spirit even among Christians repels the true light of Christ.

“«He was in the world,…yet the world did not recognize him»” (Jn. 1:10). “«He was in the world»” in his creative and providential activity, especially in arranging events in preparation for his manifestation. All this was very evident to those having eyes to see, and yet not the whole world recognized him; the recognition of him was not common knowledge, a common feature of all and everyone, but only of those who understood him. Therefore, when he came to his own, his own did not receive him, for they did not recognize him. They did not recognize because they submitted to other principles, developed other needs, taking care of satisfying them, and began to be nourished by other hopes. This gave them their own internal bent, by which true light became inaccessible to them.

And among his own the Lord walks, and from his own many, very many do not receive him. The reason for this is the prevailing spirit of the world; “«the world did not recognize him.»” In the word: “«world»” is pointed out the reason for incomprehension. The world—people cleaving to the world and thinking of the worldly and in a worldly way; and nothing so darkens the mind as passionate love for the world. The spirit of the world is the spirit of godforgetfulness, of egoism ready to sacrifice everything—even piety, conscience, and faith itself—for itself, and a spirit of all-sided comfort through power, visible position, worldly learning, pomp, gratification of the senses—of hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch—and every sweet irritation of the flesh. This is a dark realm. Like a thick cloud, it separates from the soul and hides the light of Christ, and not a single ray of it penetrates into it, while this spirit prevails in it.

The third characteristic feature of true light is new creation, spiritual rebirth, and as a consequence, sonship to God. “«Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God»” (Jn. 1:12). The fallen had no other way out than either to perish or, by the power of salvation, to rise to the higher degree of sonship to God. The goodness of God chose the latter. Why was the sentence not carried out: “you will surely die” (Ex. 21:16, Mt. 15:4, Mk. 7:10)? Because then already the Son of God intervened for us, and the power of his intervention then began to work. But since he, the Intercessor and Advocate, is the Son, all partakers of his intercession are raised to sonship. The Son of God became the Son of Man, while all sons of men, becoming one with him through faith, become sons of God. And this is not merely by external acknowledgment but by internal transformation. They are all rebuilt anew, born anew of God with spiritual birth. The hidden light of divine grace, penetrating inward, sows the seed of new life after God and forms then a new, «hidden in the heart of mankind,» in incorruptibility, “«of a gentle and quiet spirit»” (1 Pet. 3:4). Its conception and formation are not of mankind but of God; therefore he is God’s, God’s child. All believers have been changed by a wondrous change and have “«the right to become children of God,»” not by his favor alone but by an inner transformation and vital communion with him, maintained, grown, and brought to perfection by him.

The condition for entering sonship to God is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. To believe in his name means to confess with the heart that he is the Only-begotten Son of God and God incarnate for the salvation of us sinners, and to recognize oneself as a sinner destroyed and unable to escape misfortune brought by sin except through the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ carries in his heart such a conviction: I have destroyed myself by sin and I am saved only by the power of the Lord, crucified for me and made me alive by his grace. Consciousness of sinful helplessness and sinful destruction brings one to the Lord Savior and draws him, for he came to save sinners.

Such are born of God. How they are born is known to God alone. The new life in Christ is an incomprehensible mystery. Speaking of coming events, the Lord said that of two grinding “«one” “will be taken, and the other is left»”; of two walking through the field “«one” “will be taken, and” “the other” “is left»” (Lk. 17:35-36). This parable is precisely being fulfilled in spiritual birth. From among sinners and sinners one or another is seized and becomes new; while all others are left to go their old way. By what paths the light has touched some and others present here do not feel it—no one can say, not only outsiders but even those themselves whom the light of God’s grace has touched. The best solution to this: “«they are born of God»” (Jn. 1:13), without asking how much and to what extent human self-will and self-activity participated here. Neither natural birth, nor position in the world, nor degree of education, nor all other external influences—nothing here matters. All is from God…. Spiritual birth is aroused by grace through his word and is accomplished through the holy mysteries. The word of God, whether received externally and understood inwardly or uttered directly within and received, pours forth light and power, awakens and strengthens, and in the mysteries creates anew, as at the beginning when God spoke a word and all appeared in existence. Therefore all reborn children of God are “«begotten…»” “«by the word of the living God, …abiding forever»” (1 Pet. 1:23).

How far from truth are those for whom Christianity is merely a certain view of all that exists and a certain order of rules of life! Seek new birth from God so as not merely to be called but to become children of God, not merely by his favor but by a new life received from him and maintained by living communion with him, grown and brought to perfection.

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.

Genesis

Genesis 1:314. «All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

Genesis 3:151. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ; 7. «And the Light Shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness Has Not Overcome it» (Jn. 1:5)

Exodus

Exodus 21:1610. Characteristic Features of True Light

Psalms

Psalms 32:64. «All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

Psalms 88:16–171. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Psalms 103:305. The Lord—Providence Over All

Isaiah

Isaiah 53:81. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Matthew

Matthew 1:11. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Matthew 1:1–171. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Matthew 5:481. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Matthew 7:610. Characteristic Features of True Light

Matthew 11:2810. Characteristic Features of True Light

Matthew 15:410. Characteristic Features of True Light

Matthew 21:23–279. The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

Mark

Mark 7:1010. Characteristic Features of True Light

Mark 11:27–339. The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

Luke

Luke 1:11. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Luke 1:21. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Luke 1:31. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Luke 1:41. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Luke 2:25–329. The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

Luke 3:23–281. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Luke 3:381. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Luke 6:361. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Luke 9:231. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Luke 17:35–3610. Characteristic Features of True Light

Luke 20:1–89. The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

John

John 1:23. Christ is Risen! «In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was With God, and the Word Was God» (Jn. 1:1)

John 1:45. The Lord—Providence Over All; 6. «And That Life Was the Light of Mankind» (Jn. 1:4)

John 1:69. The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

John 1:79. The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

John 1:89. The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

John 1:910. Characteristic Features of True Light

John 1:1010. Characteristic Features of True Light

John 1:1210. Characteristic Features of True Light

John 1:1310. Characteristic Features of True Light

John 1:141. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

John 1:183. Christ is Risen! «In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was With God, and the Word Was God» (Jn. 1:1)

John 5:175. The Lord—Providence Over All

John 5:265. The Lord—Providence Over All

John 5:3510. Characteristic Features of True Light

John 6:401. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

John 7:48–4910. Characteristic Features of True Light

John 10:303. Christ is Risen! «In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was With God, and the Word Was God» (Jn. 1:1)

John 13:1–141. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

John 13:151. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

John 14:103. Christ is Risen! «In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was With God, and the Word Was God» (Jn. 1:1)

John 20:311. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Acts

Acts 17:286. «And That Life Was the Light of Mankind» (Jn. 1:4)

Romans

Romans 6:41. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Romans 8:21. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Romans 10:1810. Characteristic Features of True Light

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2:113. Christ is Risen! «In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was With God, and the Word Was God» (Jn. 1:1)

1 Corinthians 8:64. «All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

1 Corinthians 11:11. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 2:151. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Galatians

Galatians 4:191. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:31. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Ephesians 1:4–54. «All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

Ephesians 1:54. «All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

Ephesians 1:101. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Ephesians 2:181. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Colossians

Colossians 1:164. «All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

Colossians 1:175. The Lord—Providence Over All

1 Timothy

1 Timothy 3:161. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

Hebrews

Hebrews 1:31. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ; 5. The Lord—Providence Over All; 6. «And That Life Was the Light of Mankind» (Jn. 1:4)

Hebrews 1:104. «All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

Hebrews 7:261. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

1 Peter

1 Peter 1:2310. Characteristic Features of True Light

1 Peter 3:410. Characteristic Features of True Light

2 Peter

2 Peter 1:197. «And the Light Shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness Has Not Overcome it» (Jn. 1:5)

1 John

1 John 4:31. Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

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

Lessons from the Acts and Words of the Lord
by Theophan the Recluse.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The cover features
The Appearance of Christ to the People (Явление Христа народу, 1837–1857)
by Alexander Ivanov (Russian, 1806–1858), Wikimedia Commons, 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

- Lessons From the Acts and Words of the Lord God and Savior of Us, Jesus Christ

- The Theology of the Holy John the Theologian Concerning the Divinity of the Lord Savior and the Dispensation of Our Salvation

- Christ is Risen! «In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was With God, and the Word Was God» (Jn. 1:1)

- «All Things Were Made Through Him, and Apart From Him Nothing That Exists Was Made» (Jn. 1:3)

- The Lord—Providence Over All

- «And That Life Was the Light of Mankind» (Jn. 1:4)

- «And the Light Shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness Has Not Overcome it» (Jn. 1:5)

- Darkness of the Fall is Sinful Darkness

- The Significance of the Holy John the Forerunner of the Lord

- Characteristic Features of True Light
- Scripture Index
- The Author: Saint Theophan the Recluse
- Colophon