The goal of a Christian's earthly life is to earn the Kingdom of Heaven. Without this, there is no meaning in life. But the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, it is attained by great feats with the help of fasting and prayer. The famous hermit of the Vyshinskaya hermitage at the end of the last century, Bishop Theophanes, wrote the following for edification: "How can one be saved? "The matter is clear. What is there to think about? How many saved do we know? And how were they saved in the Orthodox Church of Christ? Let the Christian live as the Orthodox Church commands, and be saved. Let him believe only in the simplicity of an unquestioned heart, and let him abandon exactingness and questioning and not disturb the realms of faith with them. To those who are not quite clear by what and how salvation is accomplished in the Church of God, this must be said: believe in everything in which the Holy Orthodox Church commands us to believe, and, receiving the grace-filled powers, through the sacraments and warming them, through participation in all the divine services and through the fulfillment of all the other decrees of the Holy Church, follow unswervingly the path of the commandments prescribed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of lawful shepherds, and thou shalt be saved."

And the Holy Orthodox Church commands us to love God and keep His commandments, to love our neighbor, to do good to every person, to honor our parents and spiritual pastors, to pray to God daily and to attend church, to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, not to condemn others, not to slander, not to deceive, not to lie, to lead a pious and not shameful life, and to acquire more virtues. The fulfillment of all the prescriptions of the Church makes the faith active. Every Orthodox Christian should be active in his faith, pleasing God by fulfilling His commandments.

Man is the image of God

"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another" (John 13:34).

"If we love one another, God dwells in us" (John 4:12).

Everywhere we look today, we see great turmoil on earth. Everywhere man is not valued, not respected, everywhere he is humiliated and insulted, everywhere man is reduced to nothing. To deceive a person or kill him has become commonplace... That is why there is such turmoil on earth. God created man in a completely different way – He created him in His Image and Likeness. And as we love and revere God, so we must honor and love every person (Matt. 22:39). Already in antiquity it was known to people that man is the Image and Likeness of God, but people have not understood this greatest Commandment of God and do not fulfill it. Very early people began to hate each other, created masters and slaves, invented cruel serfdom, started internecine strife and wars between peoples. Instead of peace and happiness on earth, violence and robbery went everywhere. This happened because people completely forgot that God created man in His Image and Likeness. This means that God gave people His first Commandment, so that they would resemble God in their image and likeness, i.e. in their lives. But there were wars, robberies, slavery and violence of some against others. It was impossible to live like this, and the Lord our God sent His Son into the world so that He would change, change people, so that He would teach them the Truth of God, so that He would introduce His New Covenant on earth, so that people would begin to live in a new way. And the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to our earth as a Man, without ceasing to be God, He came as the God-Man, in order to unite closely with people in human form and teach them to live in such a way that there would always be peace and true happiness on earth. And our Lord Jesus Christ spent 33 years among people, all the time zealously teaching them the basics of our happy life, showing us the goal and tasks of our earthly life.

Christ gave us His true teaching on how to live on earth, so that we would all be the Image and Likeness of God, i.e., so that we would be what the Lord created us in the beginning. When Christ was asked what the first commandment in the law was, i.e. what was the purpose of our human life, or how we should live, He resolutely answered: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind—this is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matt. 22:37-40). By this commandment of His, Christ created the New Testament. This commandment is the foundation for a new life. This means that this is God's command for us to live on earth so that there is peace and happiness on it. No one has ever placed man so high as Christ did: man is the Image and Likeness of God! Everyone should love a person, as we love God. And to love means to serve, to help, to respect, to appreciate.

Today we do not have peace and happiness on earth, because people do not fulfill the first commandment given by Christ, because a large number of people today falsely teach that there is no God. Communists do not recognize God and go by violence and deception, fire and sword against those who love God. And whoever does not love God does not respect man. That is why now there are wars, violence and diabolical lies. Whoever does not recognize God will never have peace, he will not respect man. The Communists have come out against God and are endlessly sowing misanthropy, violence and deception... In 1933, they starved to death seven million people in the Ukraine and southern Russia. Communists sow hatred for people, hatred for everyone who thinks differently from them. In their teachings, they preach war to all non-communists and threaten to subjugate the whole world. The whole world is under threat. Only God can save the world from destruction, but for this people must return to God.

Chastity

On the eve of Great Lent, it is appropriate and timely to recall one of the great Christian virtues – chastity. For some reason, this word has almost disappeared from the vocabulary of everyday life. It is found only in some church prayers, as, for example, in the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian: "Lord and Master of my life..." But only a few hear it there, only those who are present at the Great Lenten services on weekdays, and the overwhelming majority do not go to church on these days, and, consequently, do not hear this prayer and do not know it. In modern life, the word "chastity" has been forgotten, and as a virtue it has lost its beauty and attractiveness for many Christians. According to the dictionary, chastity means: sanity, abstinence, purity of body and soul, modesty, modesty; chaste — not yielding to the lusts of the body, abstinent, sober, modest.

According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers of the Church, it has a sublime significance. St. John Chrysostom says: "The chaste are understood to be the prudent. For chastity is called a sound state of mind. But there is another concept under chastity. By this word is meant purity from carnal sins and lust."

Blessed Jerome writes: "The Apostle commands the elders to be chaste, so that they do not give themselves over to carnal lust at an age that is naturally alien to it, and so that when the blood is cold for it, they do not serve as a tempting example for young men."