New Testament Instructions on the Same Subject

Let us now listen to what Christ teaches His disciples. Here are His words spoken to the above-mentioned brethren, who have not yet believed in Him: "The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I bear witness of it, that its works are evil" (John 7:7). At the last Last Supper, with the disciples who had already believed in Him, he says a little differently: "If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you." If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19). From the comparison of these two sayings it is clear that the closer a person is to Christ, the less he has in common with this world, which will gradually hate any believing Christian. On another occasion the Saviour said to the Pharisees: "You show yourselves to be righteous before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for what is high among men is an abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). What is high in people? The very things that the godless world values: fame, wealth, feigned virtue, hypocritical worship of God. Therefore, as the Evangelist John testifies about the coming of the Messiah, the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him (John 1:10). What did the Lord command His little flock, which He had chosen from the world? To deviate from the spirit of this world, to endure persecution from it, but at the same time to enlighten it, to choose from it those who will believe. The Gospel exhortation was continued by the apostles. On the very day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, the Apostle Peter teaches those who believe in the Risen Christ: "Be saved from this corrupt generation" (Acts 2:40), understanding by this generation those who do not believe in the Lord. The same idea is constantly encountered in the Epistles of the Apostles. Thus, St. James, the chosen brother of the Lord, writes: "Adulterers and adulterers! do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity against God? Thus, whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4). There was no talk of any adultery here, so the word adulterers refers simply to lovers of the world who, in loving the world, betray their God, their Christian name. St. John is no less categorical: "Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world: whoever loves the world has not the love of the Father in him." For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of this world. And the world passes away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17). The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are the basic passions, conveniently supported and developed by life according to the rules of the world. This includes fornication, love of money, gluttony (lust of the flesh), constant distraction and petrified insensibility (lust of the eyes), vanity and ambition (worldly pride as opposed to spiritual pride). Without renunciation of the world, no one can free his heart from these passions. The Apostle Paul also constantly makes a distinction between the internal (the Church) and the external (the world) and commands you to avoid tempting examples: "I wrote to you in the Epistle, not to associate with fornicators; however, not in general with the fornicators of this world, or covetous, or predators, or idolaters, for otherwise you would have to come out of this world. But I have written to you not to associate with him who, calling himself a brother, remains a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a swindler; with such a one you cannot even eat together (1 Cor. 5:9-11). It means that contacts with the fornicators of this world involuntarily remain, but at the most superficial level: neighborly, trade, joint working relations. Where close, soulful, fraternal communion is supposed to be – namely, in the Church – there are obviously sinful, seductive examples that are completely intolerable and inadmissible. They are subject to general condemnation and are either cured by repentance, or their bearers are expelled, so that a bad example through general connivance does not infect many. In another place, the Apostle Paul expresses himself even more briefly and directly: "Do not be deceived: bad associations corrupt good morals" (1 Cor. 15:33). And again: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity? What does light have to do with darkness? - and continues with the words of the prophet Isaiah: - Therefore ye shall come out from among them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you" (2 Corinthians 6:14-17, Isaiah 52:11). The same words are repeated by the Apostle John in his Revelation, when he describes God's judgment on the of Babylon, which is understood as a certain ecclesiastical community of the end times, imbued with the spirit of the world and through this completely betrayed the Lord: "Depart from her, my people, that ye may not be partakers of her sins, and that ye be not subject to her plagues" (Rev. 18:4). The testimonies and instructions of the apostles on this topic can be continued. But we, limiting ourselves to what has been cited, will pay attention to what people and in what ministry all this was said. The Apostles did not flee into the wilderness, but went to the people, to the world, to cities and villages, preached in large assemblies both to Jews and to pagans. Their first and direct task was to bring to the world the salvation that was granted to man by Jesus Christ. And the Apostles, by their preaching, again single out the part of the world that is being saved (desiring salvation, accepting salvation), turning it into the Church of the Living God, and this Church is not of this world, as Christ Himself said about His disciples.

Patristic Instruction on the World and Modernity

Perhaps it would not be worth quoting all this mass of testimonies of Scripture, if separation from the world were only a certain component part of Christian life, a certain particular commandment. But it's much more than that. Distance from the world is the basis of the basics. Without this, not only any spiritual and moral improvement of a person is impossible, but even the mere preservation of the Christian faith. If you and I have not yet acquired, say, meekness, purity of heart, and have not learned to pray correctly, then all is not lost for us. By doing all this, we can somehow grow spiritually, correcting our sinful deformities of the soul. But if at the same time we do not distance ourselves from the world, if we continue to live like everyone else, if we value and love what the godless majority values and loves, then in the spiritual sense we will not even reach the starting point. There can be no question of any of our virtues, of any spiritual acquisitions, until our way of life, our concepts and tastes have changed decisively. What does separation from the world mean for our conditions? This question was answered in their time and for their circle of listeners by almost all the Holy Fathers, ascetic teachers. We will listen more attentively to St. Theophan the Recluse, who was close to us in time, and addressed his sermons to ordinary parishioners. "There is a withdrawal from the world by the body - this is a withdrawal into the desert. But there is a withdrawal from the world without leaving the world, a departure from it by a way of life. The first is not appropriate for everyone and not everyone can do it; And the second is obligatory for everyone and must be fulfilled by everyone. And it is to this that St. Andrew invited us in his canon, when he advised us to withdraw into the wilderness by law. And so, give up the customs of the world and all your actions, take every step as the good law of the Gospel commands, and in the midst of the world you will live as in the wilderness. Between you and the world, this lawfulness will become like a wall, from behind which the world will be invisible. He will be in front of your eyes, but not for you. The world will have its own alternations of changes, and you will have your own rank and your own orders.

And so inscribe rules in everything for yourself and establish an order of life contrary to the customs of the world, and you will be outside the world in the world, as in the desert. Neither you will be seen in the world, nor the world in you. Thou shalt be a wilderness-dweller in the world" (Homily to Those Who Pray for Repentance and Communion, 45). Thus, we are required to change the order of life to the opposite of the customs of the world. A person who has sincerely come to Christ in our days rejects a whole series of unnecessary worldly acquaintances, habits, pleasures and amusements. Undoubtedly, on the eve of their conversion, he no longer loved them in his heart, otherwise his conversion itself would hardly have taken place. But these worldly bonds tend to enslave us, to entangle us with the help of habits, and we hold on to them, even if we do not love them. But the first grace of conversion gives us all the necessary strength to break away from these bonds more or less simply and painlessly, if only we ourselves want to.

We are in the world and the world is in us

The Apostle Paul teaches us by his example all the advantages of the world, such as: people's opinion, fame, wealth, connections, social origin and upbringing – for the sake of Christ, as he put it, to consider them as loss or, in Slavonic: to count them as umti (Phil. 3:8). Umety means rubbish, swept garbage. This is the correct assessment of the world's values and differences! And indeed, it is not so difficult to get rid of them, which the Apostle emphasizes when he uses this word: they are able. We must simply brush something off of our lives, like garbage swept with a broom. This applies to television, spectacles, dances, godless newspapers and the company of godless friends, to the acquisitiveness of things and the pursuit of a worldly career. All this, indeed, is garbage, which, we repeat, is relatively easy to part with. But, of course, only for the person who has experienced conversion to Christ and has touched the values of life of a higher order. It will be much more difficult to part with those passions that live in our heart and constantly give rise to worldly attachments in it. To expel from the heart the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, these "representatives of this world" in our hearts, is the work of a lifetime, which few people succeed in yet. Love of money, gluttony, idle curiosity, laziness, fornicatory thoughts will live in us for a long time after we turn off the TV and leave bad acquaintances. But do not think about overcoming these spiritual ailments until you have completed the first actions, until you have at least cleared the outer courtyard of your soul. The Apostle Paul reached the state when, as he put it, the world is crucified for me, and I for the world (Gal. 6:14). The generally accepted patristic explanation of these words is as follows. Mip is crucified for man, when he does not live in the world, and man is crucified for the world, when he no longer thinks, feels, and desires in the world, when nothing worldly is found in his soul. This is the limit to which one must strive in the renunciation of the world. Consciously believing Christians develop their own special way of life and circle of acquaintances, their own ways of life and topics for conversation. By the way, do you know what the word "freedom" means? It means "one's being", that is, a special way of life. Free from the world is not the one who arbitrarily tramples on the laws of social life, but the one whose way of life is dedicated to God. Overcome the attachment of the world by remembering your conversion. Do not lose in vain the great power of this first impulse of your faith. If you begin to fight temptation with such a reminder of the first grace you have received, if you begin to call on the Lord for help, you will receive grace by His mercy (John 1:16). You have probably heard the life of Mary of Egypt. When, after her conversion and repentance, she withdrew into the wilderness, it was not only the heavy sorrows of this solitary life that tormented her, but also a burning craving to return to the world, its feasts and fornications. But the nun steadfastly overcame these temptations. Don't you remember what exactly? - By remembering his conversion and vow given before the icon of the Mother of God in the narthex of the Jerusalem church, and, of course, by fervent prayer. Do the same. Ordinary youthful maximalism and less binding on public opinion than that of mature people will help you in this. Mip condemns us, this is not surprising, as the Apostle says, they are amazed that you do not participate with them in the same debauchery, and they slander you (1 Pet. 4:4), but nevertheless we will begin to live according to our own, Christian concepts, having only the most external, civil relations with the world, but not allowing it to reach our minds and hearts.

Separation from the world, pride and love for one's neighbor

No matter how much the representatives of the world despise and insult us for contempt for the world, they will certainly respect us. However, on one condition: in the absence of pride and arrogance in our hearts and in our behavior. Contempt for the world should not be demonstrated. Wherever it begins with a pose and a phrase, it usually ends with them. The rejection of the world should deepen deeper into the heart as the Christian life progresses. And everything deep does not tolerate ostentatious manifestations. Mip is doomed, the humanity attached to it will not see eternal life. To pretend that we do not understand this would be hypocrisy. But when a specific person stands before you, do not consider him as an heir of hell. Despise the world as an abstract whole, but we are commanded to love our concrete neighbor as he already is. Humanists and communists do the opposite. For the good of humanity, they constantly, quietly or loudly, kill a particular person. This is the long-noticed difference between Christ's commandment and the godless "love of humanity," which is the opposite of the true love of God. Be special (not in appearance, but in the general line of behavior) and at the same time do not disdain anyone. In study, in work, in trouble (but not in sin!) help everyone: both the atheist and the ill-wisher. Only do not share your heart with them, lest it grow cold and cling to sin. With the long-term observance of these two conditions, Christian love for one's neighbor will begin to grow and strengthen in the heart. For the time being, only a small part of it is available to us, and even that we often defile with vanity or contempt. This is a difficult path. The conversion of a modern young Christian often meets with family resistance. The word of Christ is fulfilled: "A man's enemies are his own household" (Matt. 10:36). This is the most difficult of all world ties, when the main representatives of the world for us are our closest relatives. If such a situation has already developed in your family, do not dream that there are any common recipes and solutions. Many times you will sin in both directions, and you will succumb to temptations, and you will unjustly offend your neighbors, until you find the golden mean. One consolation here: this is the lot of many modern Christians, you are not alone on this path. Such family and moral problems are solved in a private manner, but still it is necessary to make a general remark. The Savior says: "Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Matt. 10:37). This is not just His will, it is true even by human reflection. The bonds of one's own sin are still overcome. The bonds of sin, strengthened by the bonds of the world, are much more severe. When hypocrites oppose disgust from the world with love for one's neighbor and thus hurt your conscience, remember the example of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian. In his youth, he was so fervent in his devotion to Jesus that Jesus Himself gave him the name Son of Thunders. One day John met a certain man who cast out demons in the name of the Lord Jesus, but did not follow the apostles, and forbade him to do so in the future. Christ Himself did not approve of such an act of the disciple. On another occasion John proposed to bring down fire from heaven on the Samaritans, who did not accept Jesus and his disciples, for which he also received a rebuke from his Teacher (Luke 9:49-55). All this was when John was still a youth. Then, in adulthood, in his epistles, the Apostle teaches in every possible way to avoid communion with vicious people and heretics. And towards the end of his life, it is he, the very old man, who learns that one of his disciples, having fallen away from the faith and become a criminal, who seeks him out and begs him to repent. The sinner runs away in despair and shame, but John catches up with him, forgetting his old age, promising to take upon himself the eternal punishments prepared for this evildoer, if only he repents. And thus he conquers the heart of the hardened youth, returns the lost sheep to the flock of Christ. O Saint John! Wasn't it you who half a century ago was going to bring fire on such people? But you brought it together, only it is not a scorching flame, as in Sodom, but the fire of that purest Divine love that you acquired from your youth through your zeal! There were also other cases when holy ascetics, who had long since died to all that was vain, left their wilderness for a short time and visited some sinful refuge where their fallen disciples had arrived, and with such a movement of their hearts led sinners to repentance and correction. And what can we say about the saints, when Christ Himself allowed the unclean lips of prostitutes to touch His feet (of which we have no similar examples in the lives of the saints), not to mention joint meals with publicans and sinners. Only after these conversations and meals did the publicans and prostitutes abandon their criminal worldly attachments, and it was not the Lord Himself or His disciples who turned to the path of the world. But believe me, you and I are incapable of this, we do not yet know what true Divine love is, which the Savior had from the beginning in all perfection, and some of His faithful disciples and followers reached only at the end of their lives through many sorrows. If St. John had not been the Son of Thunder at the age of twenty, then by the age of eighty he would not have become the Apostle of Love. The thought that is now widespread is cunning and deceptive: well, what is so special if I, a believer, do not become different from others in order to be closer to them, and perhaps lead them to faith; I will not enter into any disputes and conflicts with them, I will live like them. - Such love will end not with the fact that the publicans and prostitutes will follow Christ, but with the fact that Christ's disciples will turn into publicans and harlots. Such is the experience. At first after conversion, we are drawn to the "apostleship", we want to share with everyone our spiritual discovery, which we got so easily. But God does not bless this and almost never gives such undertakings success. Mip and his children will not believe either Christ or your conversion. Your spiritual acquisition will remain an empty sound for them until they experience it themselves, and this happens to a few of them. But we are commanded to be saved from this corrupt generation (Acts 2:40). Then, after many sorrows, it will come: your prayer and conversation may become effective, leading people to the Lord. But first you need the world to die in you. In the meantime, the best thing we can do to serve the children of this age is not to be like them. They will oppose our faith, but with God's help we will outplay some of them. It won't be soon. Ten or twenty years may pass. If only we remain faithful to our Christian calling and election. And they will give up, they will understand that only in appearance they are richer, more prosperous, wiser, and understand life better than we do. But in fact, everything will be the opposite. The words of the Apostle, for whom the world was crucified and he for the world, will come true: We carry this treasure (faith and grace - S.T.) in earthen vessels, so that the abundant power may be attributed to God, and not to us. We are oppressed everywhere, but we are not oppressed; we are in desperate circumstances, but we do not despair; we are persecuted, but not forsaken; we are deposed, but we do not perish. We always carry the death of the Lord Jesus in our bodies,.. that the life of Jesus also may be made manifest in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:7-11). I am not saying that in this respect we will be like the Apostle: these words of his can be fulfilled literally only through martyrdom or true monasticism. But the meaning of these words for us is as follows: the farther a person is from the world, the more the world's people need him. Love all, flee from all – this is the testament of St. Arsenius the Great to all true ascetics. Mip is suffocating in its limitations, it needs people not from the world. Who knows, maybe someday we will be useful to someone precisely as Christians, as bearers of a different spirit. But there is a time for everything. We still have to suffer a little for our sins, learn to mourn them, only after that will we learn to have compassion for our neighbors - specific people, and for our entire unfortunate, ruined homeland. Entering into your faith more deeply, you often encounter the inexplicable and paradoxical. It starts from the very moment of contact. How can one simultaneously feel the abyss of one's sin and feel God's mercy towards oneself, even boldness before Him? Remember, we have already talked about this. How these two incompatible feelings are combined, only spiritual experience knows. The attitude of the Christian to the world is similar. How can we simultaneously unite in one heart both disgust from it and weeping for those who are perishing in it, bitter weeping to the point of heartache? If you do not quench your zeal for the glory of God, if you yourself are not worldly, if you avoid the hypocrisy of this world, then you will know by experience what we were talking about.

The world passes away, and its lust (1 John 2:17)

The temporal blessings of the transitory world deceive many, at least as long as they are still in the possession of people, and they believe in the permanence of these blessings. But now our Russia has become a clear illustration of the short-lived well-being of life: it has been taken away from the whole country, it has disappeared quickly and hopelessly. Will you find a happy person next to you, satisfied with his life? Unlikely. Except for a Christian, who is not of this world and knows how to be content both in the wilderness and in prison. Look: people have no reason to live, and most simply have nothing to live on. The economy is in ruins, the army is disbanded, science and culture are on their last legs. No work, no earnings and no light ahead. Only the merchant and criminal world lives. But in such a country, you can't envy the destitute. The rich cry no less than the poor. They do not have life, but a continuous struggle to maintain the standard of living and constant fear for it. The life of each of them has already been valued in the gangster market and is an insignificant part of their fortune. How long will their well-being, at least externally, last? And can satiety and comfort be called well-being if its constant hostages are members of one's own family? Thus passes this world and its lust. Everything runs away, everything flows between the fingers. Not only will death (such a cheap thing in today's universal market of life!) take away everything, but long before death you will not be able to keep any of the world's possessions in your hands. Property floats away, career collapses, friends cheat, loved ones die.

And if there is nowhere to run away from it, then there are only two answers: positive - to become a Christian and correspond to the goal of existence, and negative - to commit suicide. In youth, everyone chooses their own path in life. In our youth there were many deceptive paths before us, and now the world cynically offers you only two: to prison or to a brothel. According to the world's judgment, we have nowhere else to go, not one of the hundred million Russian population is needed for the world order that is being built, every Russian corpse is a sigh of relief for its organizers. But this does not mean that our life is completely aimless. There is also the narrow path of Christ, although, as the Lord warned, few find it, but the world is not able to take it away from us. Let us not go down the path of the world, and God will somehow nourish us in its backyard. It is only necessary to believe in our Saviour and Provider, and then it will turn out that the sons of this world, even from their worldly point of view, without even thinking about eternity, will eventually be forced to recognize the correctness of our path, and not their own, crooked and disastrous.

Mip and the Church Environment

Another difficult test and disappointment awaits you. Living in a church environment, living in a church life, although necessary, is not at all sufficient to escape from the world. Moreover, you will rarely find as much of the worldly spirit as in the church environment. And, of course, you will have to suffer a lot from such a temptation. It may happen that in the church you will see acquisitiveness, vanity, careerism, hypocrisy, envy, slander, friendship with the powerful of this world for the sake of shameful gain, and more terrible sins. Know that there are not so few Russian Protestants, Catholics, and sectarians who are victims of this grievous spectacle. And yet they turned out to be wrong in rejecting Orthodoxy. Time will pass and you will perhaps see how even those who have survived the conversion to Christ, but are "stuck" in this church system, who have become clerics, seminarians, wardens, superintendents, spiritual children of the official elders, grow cold in heart, begin to philosophize in the earthly, worldly, and forget about the heavenly. Of course, they memorize all sorts of Orthodox phrases, including those about eternity and the renunciation of the world. But at the same time, to be honest, they believe that the church in our real reality still begins with a solid legal roof and with an economic foundation. And the goal of all church activity is seen simply in "embracing" as many people as possible, without delving into their spiritual and moral state: to baptize everyone, to commune, to marry, to consecrate all restaurants, nuclear power plants and personal cars. There is an expression: being determines consciousness. In a deep sense, this is not true. Man is still free, the path following Christ to Heaven or the path on earth to hell he chooses himself. But if he chooses the second path, then earthly existence will really determine for him all the boundaries of consciousness, all concepts and heartfelt attachments. When existence begins to determine a person's consciousness, then in ascetic language this is called sinful slavery. Look, who in Russia lives well now, who is most likely to live in the temple of mammon? Are these not the same persons who stand bodily in the temple of God? Mammon, on the other hand, firmly "sets her consciousness" to all who come to her with faith. On the advice of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, "study the spirit of this age, in order to avoid its influence as much as possible." A characteristic feature of this spirit of the age is hypocrisy, the contrast between form and content, between word and life. Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and prepare yourself in advance for the temptation of the worldly spirit in the very ecclesiastical environment. It was foreseen by the Apostle Paul, who pointed out people of corrupt minds who think that godliness serves for gain, and commanded them to distance themselves from such (1 Tim. 6:5). How many seemingly Orthodox people there are today, in all classes and ages, at any level of education, who understand the goal of Orthodox piety in this way! However, of course, the Orthodox Church, according to the promise of Christ, must remain until the end of time, and remain faithful. Does the "church world" that lives in this way belong to it? Where is she? These are difficult questions that go beyond the boundaries of our topic - moral instruction. To a person whose moral concepts are not too distorted, the Lord Himself will reveal where His Church is. First of all, it is necessary to understand what it is, what Christ founded on earth and to which He gave the name of the Church. By understanding what we are looking for, it will be easier to decide where to look, and whether to search at all. But this is the topic of a separate book, and not just one. For now, enough has been said.