Do you understand the nature of this temptation, its power and danger? Satan offered Him power, indivisible, absolute, complete power over all the kingdoms of the earth, if only He would worship him. Of course, the Lord rejected this temptation as well.

Why did he reject it? Because Satan offered the power that any government has. And no state power can in any case do without coercion, without violence. By its laws it compels obedience, punishes non-obedience to them, punishes them severely, forces them, coerces them, and without coercion no authority, even the best and most perfect one, can act. Coercion is a necessary attribute of state power.

And how could the Lord, did He want to act by coercion? Oh no, oh no! He did not want, He rejected all power connected with coercion.

One day a man of the people came to Him and said to Him: "Teacher! tell my brother to share the inheritance with me. And he said unto the man, Who hath appointed me to judge or divide you?" (Luke 12:13-14).

He needed another power: He sought another power, He wanted to rule over the free hearts of men.

People are created with free will, they can choose their own path in life as they like: either the path of truth and suffering for the sake of truth, the path of mercy, the path of love, or the path of rejection of all truth and service to their lusts and passions, they can choose the path of sin.

God does not force anyone to choose one path or another, for He has given us free will. And precisely because we are created with free will, Christ does not want to influence us by coercion, to act in the way that the state power does.

He, as God, could force all people to obey Him with heavy punishments; He could force everyone to abandon the path of evil and unrighteousness, He could destroy even the devil himself, but He does not want to force us. He seeks free, loving submission to Himself. He seeks in the hearts of men faith in Him and love for Him. If He finds faith and love, then by His Divine grace He saves such a person.

Our Lord and God Jesus Christ once said the most important words, which none of you will forget: "... out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, blasphemy..." (Matt. 15:19).

He says that the source of all our actions, good and evil, is our heart, and knowing this, he wanted to purify the hearts of people.

Through His great apostle Paul, He says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Your hearts, according to the will and desire of the Saviour, must be temples of the Holy Spirit, your hearts must be pure, full of love for God, full of hatred for all evil. And such completely purified hearts can correct all social disasters.

And under the best political and social system, under the best, most just laws, there are a large number of people with impure, evil hearts. They are afraid only of coercion, they are afraid of punishment, but they do not want to, do not want to obey good, just laws, they try to circumvent them, and the demons teach them how to circumvent even just laws. And until human hearts are corrected, this will inevitably be repeated.

Those who are perplexed as to why Christ did not care about social calamities, why He rejected political power, I will ask you to think about what I am saying.