Homilies on the Conciliar Epistle of the Holy Apostle James

Conversation Five

And we often say to these beggars, these needy people: "Go in peace! I have enough problems of my own..." What problems do you have?! If you walk around so impudently and proudly, you will soon really learn such problems that you will go begging yourself! Because God is jealous, like the bishop who ordered the return of the evil lender whom he forgave and punished him, punished him terribly! But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works": show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith from my works. You believe that God is one: you do well; and the demons believe, and tremble (James 2:17-19).Many people say of themselves: "I believe, I believe... We are believers..."Now it is generally fashionable to say that a person is a believer. If, for example, a politician is shown on TV, they will always ask him: "Are you a believer or not?" And if he says: "Yes, I am a believer!" then the host somehow immediately becomes animated and the conversation somehow becomes more lively... For example, a person was in the hospital with a serious illness (let's say, the same cancer), then left the hospital and said: "I'm healthy!" "And what is your health? Is it that you're just talking about it? But you can go back to the same hospital in a month or two, can you?" Only the one who got rid of the disease forever is truly healthy! So if a person says, "I am a believer," it should not mean that he simply shares a concept. A true believer is not one who believes in God—that God exists—but one who believes in God! To believe God means to accept His every word as a commandment to be fulfilled. And in the fact that God exists – this is what many believe, the majority of people. The Apostle James says: "And the demons believe and tremble." And how do such "believers" differ from demons? They only speak in language: "I believe, I believe...", but they still live in sins. They are even worse than demons: after all, demons not only believe, but also tremble! And these people say: "We are believers," without changing anything in their sinful life. Your faith in God, your Christianity must be attested to by life: by good deeds, by a kind attitude towards your neighbors.Protestants are especially guilty of this text from the Bible. They say: "It is enough to believe, and you will be saved!" If you follow their logic, then all the demons will be saved, because they believe and tremble! But faith alone cannot save a person. It is also necessary to fulfill God's commandments: faith is not in God – that He exists, but faith in God – complete trust in Him, trust in His every word, each of His commandments. The law of God should be above all for us! And we must seek such a living faith. Not demonic, but dead, without good works, without a concrete result. Yes, brothers and sisters, the world demands of us demonic faith! Different, constantly replacing one another, rulers tell us: "You believe, only do not interfere in modern life! The Church should not interfere in the life of the state..."How do we understand that we should not interfere? We shouldn't interfere when innocent people are being killed?! Should we not interfere when drugs are already distributed in schools?! If we do not interfere, we will be like demons who rejoice in the death of people! No, we will interfere! This is our fatherland, our land – we are obliged to interfere!And we are taught to believe in the demonic faith: "Okay, believe that God exists; go to church, gather in your church..."But this is not enough for us! The Church must go to military units, to army barracks and preach the word of God there... The church should go to institutes, universities, schools... We want the whole state to become Orthodox! Therefore, we will always defend the position of active Christianity.We are often told: "Do not interfere in our affairs, this is already politics..." But we do not recognize any of their policies! For us, there is only the power of God: the power that the sun and stars hold above the earth, that holds the breath of life in each of us! We recognize only the authority of God, which governs the beating of our hearts, the life of every person on earth! Only the Lord is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.And they want us to have demonic faith: so that the country is as they want, and we want us to pray and not interfere in anything. Brothers and sisters, you and I must actively bear witness to Christ where each of us is. After all, it is no accident that the Apostle Paul teaches: "Everyone remain in the calling in which he was called" (1 Corinthians 7:20). That is, if you believe in the Lord, for example, being a military man, remain a military man. The Church needs Orthodox soldiers – it will be necessary to restore order in the country someday! Are you called as a teacher? Remain an Orthodox teacher, teach children the basics of the faith, the Law of God! Are you called as a doctor? It is always better to be treated by a believing doctor than by an unclear one! You have been called by the Lord to serve the Church, do you want to become a priest? Be a true priest: do not say what is expected of you, preach to people not what you have invented yourself, but what is written in the Holy Scriptures, what the word of God teaches, the Holy Fathers! The social niche that each of us occupies must be sanctified by us. If you are a husband, head of wife, head of the family – take care of your family! If you work at the machine, work at the machine! If the Church calls you to another ministry, go to another service! There is no bad work, as long as this work is honest and does not violate the commandments of God.I remember my young years, when after the 8th grade I went to work in a factory. I had such an interesting job: I put on a gas mask, then climbed into a metal boiler, where resins were mixed, and then drained. On the metal walls of the boiler, the resin dried out, and it had to be knocked down with a sharp tool. And I was in this cauldron and churning the remnants of tar as long as I could breathe. After work, I went to the shower, washed off all the dirt, all the soot and chemicals, put on clean clothes, left the factory and felt like a happy person! Although I was young then, I still felt a sense of fulfilled religious duty after work. I even wanted to work in a factory all my life! Only the death of my grandmother prevented this: before she died, she said that she wanted me to be a priest. It is very important when we treat with a sense of duty any work that is entrusted to us, when we do this work in the name of God, as it is said in the Apostle Paul: "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Col. 3:17). That is why the state must be religious: because there are no spheres of social life that would not be regulated by the Divine commandments. After all, what is the state? This is the body. This is you and me, brothers and sisters, each of us. And what does it mean if the Church is separated from the state? This means that the state body was left without a soul, because the soul of our Russian state is Orthodoxy! And we see how these madmen, these nihilists, who cannot stop drug addiction, say from the TV screens: "We have already lost!" They cannot stop crime and say: "We have lost here too!" Recently, there was a message on TV that a huge gang of criminals had been detained. This whole gang consisted of police officers! All of them were killers: they killed people for money. We constantly hear about such crimes, brothers and sisters... Thus, this demonic path is the path of secularization of society, the separation of religion from the people, the Church from the state. This is the faith that we do not need. This is a demonic path to nowhere. We must fill our state with religious content. You and I, according to the word of the Lord, are the salt that should salt everything, that is, preserve everything from decay and decay [1].Let us read again:You believe that God is one: you do well; and the demons believe, and tremble (James 2:19).And then it is said: "But do you want to know, O unfounded man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by his works, when he laid Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith has worked together with his works, and by works his faith has been made perfect? And the word of the Scripture was fulfilled: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God." Do you see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone? Likewise, Rahab the harlot was not justified by her works, having received spies and sent them away in another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead (James 2:20-26).Here the holy Apostle James gives us examples: the example of the righteous Abraham, the example of Rahab. These examples are worthy of imitation, because these people not only showed faith, but for the sake of it were ready to change everything both in family life (righteous Abraham lays his only son Isaac on the altar) and in personal life (Rahab, contrary to his natural affection for his fellow citizens, lets spies into Jericho). when, cleansed by the Lord, purified by this gift of faith, in gratitude to their Creator, they change their entire life, both their personal life and the life that surrounds them. Then, brothers and sisters, we will not follow the path of demonic dead faith, not the path of this secularization, the secularization of modern life, but the path ordained by God. "Thy kingdom come... as in Heaven and on earth." That is, we want the Divine order to be the same everywhere sooner or later, both in heaven and on earth. And this Kingdom of God, the power of God, is the perfection that will change both earth and heaven.Holy Scripture testifies to us that that day will come, and then there will be a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1). And the new humanity is already being born. Every day. In every Orthodox church. In every Orthodox diocese. This is the new humanity that will live under a new sky and on a new earth. This is the Kingdom of God on earth – every Orthodox Christian! But each of you brings a piece of the Kingdom of God to your families, to your loved ones. They will not notice it right away, they may not react to it correctly. They may not understand it in your lifetime. But believe me: salt always salts. How many people I have met who came to repent and said: "My grandmother taught me, but only after her death did I realize that she was right!" ... Yes, I can testify about myself: my grandmother's most cherished dream was to see me serve as a priest in the church. But she did not even live to see the moment when I became a deacon.Perhaps in our lifetime we will not see spiritual results in our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But salt always salts! Spread the Kingdom of God around you, spread this peace of Christ! Do good with gratitude to the Lord for the great deeds that He has done with us. But if the salt loses its savor, how wilt thou make it salty? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out to be trampled under foot by men (Matt. 5:13). ^

Part 1

My brethren! Do not be many teachers, knowing that we will be subjected to greater condemnation, for we all sin much. Whoever does not sin in the word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body (James 3:1-2).At the very beginning of the third chapter of the Conciliar Epistle, the Apostle James says that when people become teachers (even if this happens by the will of God, by the will of the Church), they are subjected to greater condemnation than just people living in the world. Because the teacher is always in sight, attention is often riveted on him. People usually have an inflated idea of teachers, of mentors. And in order to dispel such errors, the Apostle James says: "For we all sin much." Here he speaks as an apostle, on behalf of other teachers.Brothers and sisters, never believe in sinless teachers! Sinless teachers are from the field of Buddhism: Buddhists say that somewhere in the mountains there are some "mahatmas"; However, as it turns out, they are just demons, demons. Any person, no matter to what level of hierarchical, priestly service he rises, will always remain only a person. And together with the Apostle James, each of us can say: for we all sin much.True Christianity consists in calling a spade a spade. Yes, we all sin a lot! But the power of our religion lies in the fact that we do not deceive ourselves. After all, the Lord Jesus Christ came to us, because we all sin much. If we were righteous, He would not have to come to earth. However, there are no righteous people – there are made-up fairy tales that there are some special people. The Apostle James says: "We all sin much." And then he wants to suggest how we can get rid of our sins: "Whoever does not sin in the word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body." We need to learn to control our speech: what we say, how we say it. And language is not only speech, it is also thoughts, thoughts, pretexts that fill our consciousness and our soul.In the first verse of this chapter, the Apostle James says about teachers: "Do not many become teachers." Let us ask ourselves this question: Who can be a teacher among God's people? Who has the right to teach at all? In what case can one person teach another person? Who are our teachers?The Holy Scriptures say that our first teachers are our parents, brothers and sisters. Look at what is written in Deuteronomy: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And let these words which I command you this day be in your heart [and in your soul]; And thou shalt instill them in thy children, and thou shalt speak of them, sitting in thy house, and going by the way, and lying down, and rising up; and bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them be a bandage over your eyes, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).With these words the God-seer Moses teaches us that we must pass on the fundamentals of the faith to our children. The foundations of faith that the Israelites once received were the belief that there is one God and that He must be loved with all one's heart and soul. Through Moses the Lord says: "And thou shalt instill them in thy children, and speak of them, sitting in thy house, and walking by the way, and lying down, and getting up." And in our time, such a fundamental basis of our faith is the belief that there is one God – the Holy Trinity, One-in-essence and Indivisible. This is faith in the authority of the Holy Church. The Church is endowed with authority from God—universal authority; No one can take this power away from her – neither the Communists, nor the Democrats, no one! The rights of the Church are unconditional.Now we hear that even monarchists encroach on the rights of the Church. But the Church is the Kingdom of God, we must remember this. You and I, brothers and sisters, have no right to accept any ideologies – neither democracy, nor communism, nor Nazism. We do not even need a monarchy if it is without Orthodoxy. When we are offered a monarchy, but not on the basis of Orthodoxy, but on some other ideas – constitutional humanism, etc. – this is just another trap for the Orthodox, aimed at destroying them. And many of us have been taught by our parents, grandparents, grandparents, and great-grandmothers. Who else has the right to teach? It is important for us to understand this, because the Apostle says: "Do not many become teachers." In Deuteronomy we read: Look... thou shalt carefully observe and do all [the law] which the Levitical priests shall teach you; Do carefully what I have commanded them (Deuteronomy 24:8).This order must not be violated: God gives revelation to His priests, and the priests to the people. Do you remember how the miraculous feeding of loaves took place? The Lord gave the loaves to the Apostles, and they distributed them to all the people (cf. Matt. 14:19). This order cannot be violated—it is a rigid hierarchical order. In the Holy Scriptures it is said that from the mouth of the pastor, from the mouth of the priest people expect instruction in the commandments of God: "For the mouth of the priest must keep knowledge, and the law is sought from his mouth, because he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 2:7). And it is very bad when priests, especially young ones, instead of talking about the commandments of God, sometimes go into politics and talk about various empty things. Therefore, pastors need to pull themselves up: we must always remember that we, pastors and priests, are appointed to teach the people, to instruct them in the true faith. In the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah it is said: They turned their backs on Me, and not on their faces; and when I was teaching them, teaching them early in the morning, they would not receive instruction (Jeremiah 32:33). Here the prophet Jeremiah complains that his prophetic instructions, prophetic lessons were not accepted by these strange disciples – his contemporaries, who did not want to listen to the teachings of the prophet of God.In the Holy Scriptures it is said that many people find teachers and mentors after their hearts, so that the teachers would flatter them. what is going on inside me. Doctors, a nurse, a priest I know, who understands many diseases, came to me. I had problems, and I was looking for mentors who could solve them. But, of course, health problems and the salvation of the soul are completely different things! Therefore, of course, we will always find ourselves a mentor who will teach us how to drive if we need to pass the driver's license exams; We can also find a mentor who will teach us how to take care of our health, how to swaddle small children correctly (this is also very important: when there is a newborn in the family, many do not know what to do with him; they do not know how to swaddle him, take care of him, and someone must explain). But the most important instruction for a person is instruction in faith, when we learn to know the will of the Creator.Brothers and sisters, we have the great happiness of being chosen by God: we are Orthodox Christians! There are not as many Orthodox Christians in Russia as it may seem. We can go to God's church, listen to spiritual instructions, read the Holy Fathers. We hear the Holy Gospel when it is read during the Divine Liturgy, and the Holy Fathers say that when we hear the Gospel read during the Divine Liturgy with our own ears, we hear the voice of Jesus Christ Himself! Therefore, first of all, let us seek for ourselves instruction in the faith, as it is said in the Gospel: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (to pass for rights, to deal with health, to learn to swaddle a child) shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33). These are the words of the Lord Himself! It must be said that none of the ancient ministries abandoned the people of God. The prophetic ministry in the Church is the ministry of warning, when His Holiness the Patriarch or bishops or priests warn the people of the coming dangers. This is the effective prophetic ministry that lives in the Church and does not cease.People turned their backs on the prophet Jeremiah: contemporaries did not want to listen to his instructions and teachings. And now many say: "Why do we need these teachings, these instructions? But it is very difficult for a person to figure everything out on his own – almost impossible. Therefore, in the Book of Jesus, the son of Sirach, it is said: Be in the assembly of the elders, and whoever is wise, cleave to him; love to listen to every sacred story, and let not reasonable parables escape you. If you see one who is wise, go to him early in the morning, and let your foot wear out the thresholds of his doors. Meditate on the commandments of the Lord and always learn His commandments: He will strengthen your heart, and the desire for wisdom will be given to you (Sir. 6:35-37). Thus, among the people of God, the following have the right to teach: parents, raising their children, priests, prophets, preachers. We know that St. Nina, Equal-to-the-Apostles, the enlightener of Georgia, was a true preacher; moreover, a female preacher, a maiden who came to Iberia and by preaching about Christ converted an entire people to Orthodoxy. In Armenia, too, young virgins preached the Gospel and converted the pagans by their preaching. And here a natural question arises: after all, only pastors can teach in the Church, those people who have a special blessing for this... What kind of preaching can the laity, for example, women and even children, preach? But the laity can testify to what the Lord has done to them: they can talk about what the Lord has done in their lives. They are eyewitnesses of the great spiritual changes that have taken place in their lives. And St. Nina, Equal-to-the-Apostles, bore witness to how she loved the Lord and how the Lord changed her heart. And those virgins who preached in ancient Armenia, they also bore witness to how the Lord performed the great miracle of their conversion to Christ. And each of us, brothers and sisters, can bear witness, first of all, by good works, telling about the great spiritual changes that have taken place in our lives.This must always be remembered: a layman cannot make any judgments on behalf of the Church, but if he wants his witness to Christ to bring spiritual results, he must speak about what happened to himself: what he heard with his ears and saw with his own eyes. In that case, your testimony will bear great spiritual fruit.I remember a woman who confused the ministry of a layperson—the testimony of what the Lord had done to her—with the prophetic ministry. Once I came to one village, and they told me: "We have a grandmother here - she teaches everyone so well. Come, Oleg, take a look!" On the spot, I saw the following picture: an old lady appeared among the young people resting there and exclaimed: "If you don't stop this music, you will immediately fail! You will all go blind!" She spoke like the prophets of old: she pronounced such harsh sentences on these young people that I was afraid not only for them, but also for myself. No, brothers and sisters, we cannot curse people, we cannot pass judgment on them! We do not have such powers. We cannot say: "You will fail!", "You will get sick and die!". We are not given such power, and, first of all, the laity do not have such power.Therefore, when you want to convert people to God, tell them about the spiritual changes that took place in your life when you became Orthodox. Maybe you will tell very little, but since you will speak as a witness, as an eyewitness of what happened to you, it will be perceived as genuine testimony. Then your teaching, your instruction will bear spiritual fruit.The Holy Scriptures say that it is very important to have teachers who interpret the word of God to us. In the book of the prophet Nehemiah we read: Joshua, Banaiah, Shereviah, Jamin, Akkuv, Shabtai, Godiah, Maaseiah, Cleita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Felaiah, and the Levites explained the law to the people, while the people stood in their place. And they read from the book, from the law of God, distinctly, and added the interpretation, and the people understood what they read (Neh. 8:7-8). In the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy it says: But the bishop must be blameless... sober, chaste, decent, honest, loving strangers, instructive (1 Tim. 3:2). Any priest is a preacher, but priests and deacons preach on behalf of the bishop and with his blessing. Therefore, the laity should also ask the blessing of the priest in order to more successfully instruct and teach their children, their own and those of their godparents, showing them clear examples of the great miracles and spiritual transformations that the Lord has performed in their lives and in their souls. That is why the Apostle James says: "Do not many become teachers, knowing that we will be subjected to greater condemnation because of this, for we all sin much." Whoever does not sin in the word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body.And then we read:"Behold, we put the bit in the mouths of the horses, that they may obey us, and we rule over their whole body" (James 3:3).The Apostle James again offers us an example. Imagine a horse: a man saddles it, but how do you control it? It is necessary to have iron bits, which are put into the horse's mouth. The Apostle James says here that if we want to change our lives, we must pay attention to our language, to what we say. How are most sins and crimes committed? First - words, conversation, and then - crime. Remember how Cain killed Abel? He said to his brother: "Let us go to the field" [1]. That is, at first his tongue pronounced a few words! Some may think: what a trifle – one brother said a few words to another! But what happened then, when, in response to Cain's words, Abel followed him? And what if we remember Judas Iscariot? And Judas came to the chief priests, and said unto them, What wilt ye give me, that I shall deliver him unto you? (Matt. 26:15). It would seem that all these are just words, but such words that decided the fate of Judas! Therefore, we must be able to control our tongue, we must have those bits of the fear of God that would restrain the movement of our tongue. And if we do not learn to control our language, we can commit any crimes! But in order to begin to control one's tongue, perhaps it makes sense first to learn to speak slowly, without haste?And Cain said to Abel his brother, [let us go into the field]. And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him (Gen. 4:8). ^

Part 2

In the next verse, the Apostle James offers another example: "Behold, the ships, no matter how great they are and how much they are carried by strong winds, with a small rudder they steer whither the helmsman wills (James 3:4).Brothers and sisters, imagine a huge ship. It is indeed driven by a powerful wind, but the direction of its movement is determined by the rudder. Even a child can hold this rudder: turn left and a huge ship rushes to the left, turn right and moves to the right.You all know that at the beginning of the XX century, a huge ship "Titanic" was shipwrecked. Why did this happen? Because people were very presumptuous, they wanted to set a kind of record - to arrive as quickly as possible from the Old World to the New, from Europe to America. Those naval officers who were entrusted with the rudder spent their time very carelessly and did not immediately notice the fatal iceberg. And when they noticed him, it was too late to change anything! Sometimes you say a hostile word and turn everyone against you at once! But think: what if you can't change anything in this situation throughout your life?! One woman once came to me and said: "Father Oleg, I have been at war with my sister for almost fifteen years and I cannot reconcile with her! I tried to call her, slipped notes under the door, but she still does not want to communicate with me!" What happened between you?" And she told me that a long time ago, fifteen years ago, she had made some snarky remarks to her sister about her little children. She said to her then: "You do not know how to do anything at all: neither swaddling nor feeding a child! What kind of mother are you?!" she said this because she was really worried about the child, who, in her opinion, was poorly fed and wrapped up - she saw it herself. That is, there was objective truth in her words. But this could not be said as she said! And for fifteen whole years she has not been able to reconcile with her own sister, because the bit of the fear of God did not restrict the movement of her tongue! so the tongue is a small member, but it does a lot. Look, a small fire ignites so much substance! (James 3:5).Indeed, the tongue does a great deal! We know that children, playing with matches, sometimes start a real fire: they strike a match, the curtain catches fire - and the whole house is already on fire! The same is true for words: they can be very dangerous, so they must be controlled. And what does the Holy Scripture say about our language? In the Book of the Prophet Micah it is said: Can I be clean with unfaithful scales and deceptive weights in my bag? For his rich are full of iniquity, and his inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceit in their mouths (Micah 6:11-12). The prophet Micah denounces people who speak lies with their tongues. Why are they doing this? Often for profit! These people have the wrong "scales", they have the wrong "weights".For the sake of money, a lot of people sin with their tongues. In the world of business, there is always deception. We often encounter the fact that a person tells a lie with the sole purpose of getting some benefit for himself; material benefit, which means transitory, having no eternal significance.Therefore, brothers and sisters, try never to lie in your life. Some people ask: is it possible to lie to the doctor to get a different disability group? No, you can't do that! Even if we acquire some money in this dishonest way, it will still not be of any use to us! On this path, many have fallen into sin. It is very dangerous when people are bilingual. The Scriptures say that Christians must be honest, not double-tongued, not addicted to wine, not covetous (1 Tim. 3:8). See how the Apostle, speaking of tongue and "double tongues," connects this with wine and covetousness! And indeed, when a person drinks, his tongue immediately begins to work in such a way that you can't stop it! Drunkards often become "double-tongued": with one – they say this, with another – otherwise; one will be told one thing, another another... And you won't understand what kind of person he is: he always speaks differently! "Bilingualism" is when we are inconsistent in our words: today we say one thing, and tomorrow another. In a drunken state, this manifests itself very often.The Apostle Paul also names another reason for "double-tonguedness" – greed. The meaning is again the same – for the sake of enrichment, for the sake of money. You said that your health was fine, and the time came to solve the issue with your pension - and you already have bad health! You've just recovered, you've already served a thanksgiving service, and you're lying to the inspector that you're not feeling well! Greed and drunkenness are what provoke our language and lead us to destruction. And what are flattering speeches? In Proverbs it is said: "To guard thee against a worthless woman, from the flattering tongue of a stranger" (Proverbs 6:24). This is how the wise King Solomon instructs us.Flattery and flattering tongue are very often associated with the sin of fornication. The wise Solomon warns that a flattering tongue leads to a strange woman.Women, of course, know how men know how to flatter: they say so much, they promise so much... Men also often listen to flattering speeches. But we must avoid such speeches, brothers and sisters! No matter how voluptuous our tongue pushes, no matter how covetousness and greed tempt us, we must remember that our language has another purpose! If we look at Proverbs again, we will find the following words: "A deceitful heart shall not find good, and a wicked tongue shall fall into trouble" (Proverbs 17:20). This is when people gossip about each other: they hear something about something else and retell it in the ear of their neighbor. But gossipers are people whom the Lord Himself will judge with a special, strict judgment!The Gospel says: If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him between you and him alone; if he hearkens to you, you have gained your brother; but if he does not listen, take with you one or two more, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be confirmed; but if he does not listen to them, tell the church; and if he will not listen to the church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican (Matt. 18:15-17). But if you spread all kinds of gossip, rumors and conjectures, this is the deceit of the tongue! not that we should speak flattering, "double-tongued"; Not that we should tell lies for the sake of enrichment! The prophet and psalmist David answers this question: "And my tongue shall preach Thy righteousness and Thy praise all day long" (Psalm 34:28). Brothers and sisters, when we read the morning and evening prayers, believe me, our tongue rejoices: it was created to glorify the Creator! But if we use our tongue to pronounce treacherous, flattering, bilingual, unrighteous words, remember that it is not given to us for this purpose! This is partly noted in the text that we have just read, but here it speaks exclusively about singing: then our lips were full of joy, and our tongue was singing; then they said among the nations: "The Lord has done great things over them!" The Lord has done great things over us: we rejoiced (Psalm 125:2-3). When a service is held in the church and all the people sing "I believe" or "Our Father" or some other prayer with one mouth, then a special spiritual uplift arises in the faithful. Truly, our language must be filled with joyful spiritual singing — that is why it is given to us. In the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians there are the following words: "That at the name of Jesus every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue may confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10-11). the tongue is given to us in order to preach the truth of God, to sing psalms, to confess Christ; our ears are given to us in order to receive the word of God with an open heart, dissolving it with faith in our hearts; the feet are given to hasten to do good; hands to do mercy. Everything that the Lord gave us, He gave for our good.Before the Fall, harmony reigned in the human being: the body was in unity with the soul. And we must strive for this unity, so that, as it is said in the Scriptures, our spirit, soul, and body may be preserved blameless until the coming of the Son of God.1 We read the following verse of the Epistle of the Apostle James: "And the tongue is fire, the adornment of iniquity; The tongue is in such a position among our members that it defiles the whole body and inflames the circle of life, being itself inflamed with hell (James 3:6). That's where the "rotten words" come from! The Apostle Paul, calling obscene speech "rotten words," said: Let no rotten word proceed out of your mouth... (Ephesians 4:29). It turns out that all this comes straight from hell - from hell it becomes inflamed.I saw one man who was already swearing, swearing so much... I said to him: "What are you doing?! Why?" – "For a bunch of words!". No, not for the sake of a bundle of words: his tongue is inflamed directly from hell, and he himself does not know it! (James 3:7).With these words the Apostle puts us to shame. He says that the animal world, which is given over to man, is really subordinate to us. But why then does man not obey his Lord? In the village, I watched how the herd was disbanded: each cow knew which yard to go to. They were walking, mooing – two turned here, one went there... Animals are in complete subjection to man, as it is said in the Holy Scriptures: And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea [and over the beasts,] and over the fowl of the air, [and over every cattle, and over all the earth,] and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth (Gen. 1:1:1). 28. The Lord gave animals to people. How dogs obey their masters, although they make them walk on their hind legs, and what they do not do to them! And dogs obey their owners and serve them faithfully! We cannot learn humility even from those creatures that are placed at our disposal. That is why the Apostle James says: For every nature of beasts and birds, creeping things and sea creatures is tamed and tamed by human nature. but no man can tame the tongue: it is an irrepressible evil; it is full of deadly poison. With it we bless God and the Father, and with it we curse men, who are created in the likeness of God (James 3:8-9). One man said to me: "Father, don't give me a big rule. You gave me a big rule, and I began to rush at everyone!" — "How did you do that?" — "I used to read only the Lord's Prayer and the Mother of God, and you ordered me to read the morning rule in its entirety. It is difficult for me, I have become very irritable..."Imagine how it happens: with the same tongue we bless God, glorify the Queen of Heaven, honor the Angels of the Lord, — and with the same tongue we utter evil words! this should not be so. We must try to do everything so that our speech is a glorification of the name of God, a preaching of God's truth, a confession of Christ. We must seriously realize our responsibility to this amazing organism – our body, which the Lord has given us as an instrument. Our tongue should be a kind of organ with which we will sing the glory of the Lord, glorifying His great miracles.But I must also warn you: if we use the organs of our body for other purposes, the Lord can deprive us of them. If we do not glorify the Lord, why do we need to speak?! And it is not necessary to fall into muteness: I have seen people who drank so much that they could not even speak! I said: "He must have fought a lot?" "He was constantly swearing!" The same goes for the ears... If we do not listen to the Word of God, but listen only to various gossip and rumors, our hearing may weaken. Why does eyesight begin to decline? You're looking in the wrong place! Why does hearing weaken? You're not listening to what is good for your soul! There may also be problems with the language. Therefore, in all things we must seek only the glory of the Lord!I knew a paralyzed man who was completely bedridden: he could neither move nor speak. He could only write brief notes with one hand. And in one of them, written with incredible difficulty, he expressed his understanding of why the Lord punished him so much! For example, my kidneys are sick now – I know why. If you have pain in your ears, liver, or something with your legs, you should know why it happened. If you do not know, then you will not know where to improve, to catch up.And the Lord punishes us not in order to take revenge or destroy: whom He loves, He punishes [2]. The Lord loves us and punishes us like a loving Father – in order to enlighten, heal, instruct. And may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved without blemish at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23). ^Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten (Rev. 3:19). ^

Sixth Discourse

Part 2

Part 1

As you have probably already noticed, brothers and sisters, when we talk to you about one of the sections of the Bible, we try to see what is said on the same subject in other places of the Holy Scriptures. This is very important, because the Scriptures say that any case is established in the presence of two or three witnesses [1].This applies not only to the worldly, but also to the spiritual life. It is impossible to build a religious life on the basis of a biblical verse taken out of context: one must try to study the entire Bible, so as to adhere not to the details misunderstood, but to the entire volume of the truth that is imprinted on the pages of the Holy Scriptures.We continue reading the Synodal Epistle of the Holy Apostle James.Does sweet and bitter water flow from the same opening of the spring? (James 3:11) Here the question immediately arises: what kind of water are we talking about? What is sweet and bitter water? Do we have the right to decide for ourselves, based on what it seems to us, what kind of water is being referred to here?In the Holy Scriptures it is said: "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:23). This means that we have no right to guess about this or that biblical text or expression. The Word of God interprets itself: in the Holy Scriptures themselves we can find evidence that confirms every word of this same Scripture.If we want to understand correctly what the Apostle James means by the expression "sweet water" (it is not "Pepsi-Cola", not carbonated water, of course, this is something else), then we must carefully study the Holy Scriptures.Reading the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus, we begin to guess what the expression "sweet water" really means: [Moses] cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There God gave the people the rule and the law, and there He tested them (Exodus 15:25).Water in the Bible is a symbol of the word of God. And now, after reading this passage, we begin to understand that the source of sweet water refers to God's statutes and God's laws. Here it is said: and the water became sweet. There God gave the people a statute and a law, and there He tested them.Naturally, where there is a law, there is a test – whether we can fulfill this law. Because the commandment tests our souls, revealing our sins or our righteousness: either we are faithful to the law or we depart from it. Of course, the law of God is sweet for a believer! Strange as it may seem, when I was about fifteen or sixteen years old, I especially loved to read the book of Deuteronomy. Later, I often wondered why. And it became clear to me: when a person is young, he enters life and wants to know what can and cannot be done.It often happens that newcomers (people who have recently come to the Church) ask the following question: "Show me clearly what I should do and what I should not!" Therefore, it is really very important when at the beginning of our journey we decide: what is God's commandment, what God wants from us, and what He does not want from us. It is entering into the wisdom of the Lord that makes a person righteous. But one should not think that the law of God will always be preserved in purity (in the sense that people will always correctly understand the law of God). Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good (Romans 7:12), the Scriptures say, and we are sinners. And since we are sinners, we inevitably begin to distort the commandments of the Creator, trying to understand them in our own way. This is a sin! But it is an even greater sin if a person thinks that both sweet and bitter water can flow from the same source; if we say: "Something in the Bible is useful to me, and something is outdated, harmful and I no longer need it!" That is why the Apostle James asks: Does sweet and bitter water flow from the same opening of the spring? In other words, he says: "If you call God your Lord, then accept all His words!" Why are we more willing to accept for ourselves from the Scriptures what concerns, for example, our forgiveness? But, on the other hand, we must also talk about God's punishments, about God's punishment. For me, this is always a difficult topic; it is probably hard for you to hear when we talk about punishment, about God's punishments that come upon sinners. Of course, it is much more joyful to talk about God's mercy and God's forgiveness. But we must learn to accept all the words of the Lord in the same way. Perhaps they will seem bitter to us—it is our duty to treat them as the truth of which it is said, "sweet water." Thus, for you and me, brothers and sisters, everything is equally useful: both when the Lord forgives us and when He punishes us! Behold: Sweet waters will become salty, and all friends will turn against each other; then the mind will be hidden, and the mind will withdraw into its storehouse (3 Ezra 5:9). So, brothers and sisters, you see one Bible verse continuing another. At first, it seemed completely unclear what the Apostle James was talking about: "sweet water", "bitter water"... But the word of God explains to us that "sweet water" is a firm stand for the statutes and laws of God, it is an exposition of the Divine laws and statutes. And so, in the Book of Ezra, we read that sweet water will be made salty: that is, there will be people who will use the law of God to distort its meaning. Then they will make the truly sweet salty, the light dark, and the hot cold. Even in our time, there are people who, although they take the law of God in their hands as a book, do so in order to interpret everything in their own way. And they change everything exactly the opposite. About the times when such changes and distortions of the word of God will take place, Ezra writes: "There will be confusion in many places, we will often send fire from Heaven; wild beasts will change their places, and unclean women will give birth to monsters (3 Ezra 5:8). This is what will precede the time when people will undertake to distort the law of God, to violate the commandments of the Creator, and to make salty things out of sweets, as we have read here. These are times of turmoil. And what is confusion? Confusion is when people are not sure about the future: they have fear, fright, despair – what will happen next? Nor are we sure that life will continue to be peaceful. For example, what is the United States doing now? To many countries of the world, they dictate their will through military force. Why is this done? Not just to scare Muslims! [2] All the devil's aggressions are always directed, first of all, against the people of God, against the Orthodox. This is done in order to sow fear and uncertainty in the hearts of us, the Russian Orthodox people, as well as among other Orthodox Christians. If there is fear in our hearts, we will be afraid. And when a person is afraid, he grovels, he can even become a traitor. The United States, which cultivates debauchery and violence, now wants to intimidate everyone and is already intimidating with missiles and bombings. It is only in words that they allegedly want to restore order or neutralize the terrorists: we know that their bombs and missiles fall on residential areas, destroy the houses of civilians, kill women and children. The true goal they are pursuing is to scare everyone and make them hostages of fear. And, indeed, someone becomes scared! Even our government is already afraid: what if there are traitors, American spies among us? And so, fear is sown in people – enemies are all around, internal and external.. This is the real confusion when a person is not sure about today, let alone tomorrow.On the one hand, the Scriptures say about the end times that then fire will often be sent from heaven to earth, and people will perish. These words can be interpreted in such a way that, by God's permission, people will be destroyed by the deadly fire of rockets [3]. On the other hand, scientists are now extremely concerned that comets and other celestial bodies often fall to earth. And they say that in the immediate vicinity of our planet, huge comets have recently been observed, ready to fall to earth. This, in turn, can lead to serious catastrophes and global cataclysms.The Scriptures also say that wild animals will change their places, that is, they will change their habitats. But now it is actually happening. Animals appear everywhere: they leave their habitual habitats, fleeing from any "chemicals", they flee from poisoned forests, from contaminated sources; their migrations have indeed become very chaotic.It is said that unclean women will give birth to monsters. On the one hand, it says that freak children will be born. There will be many such children precisely because women will become unclean and will cease to fulfill God's commandments. But one should not think that only women will be to blame for this: after all, a woman cannot give birth on her own. If a wife is unclean, then her husband (or simply the person who is the father of the child) is doubly unclean! Why could he allow her to become like this? In the Scriptures it is said: whoever marries a divorced woman (that is, a harlot. – Author) commits adultery (Matt. 19:9). Look at what kind of young people we have now, what monstrous crimes young people are committing! Just two days ago, an excited altar boy of our church ran up to me and told me an unpleasant story, which he had to witness. He was riding the subway and saw such tall, well-dressed young men surround an elderly man and completely empty his pockets. The victim was very frightened: he understood that if he protested, he could be killed. There were a lot of people around, but no one intervened! And the bandits calmly got out of the subway and went to McDonald's.And so, they were sitting and having a snack, and the altar boy ran to me and said: "Father Oleg, we need to do something. I saw with my own eyes how it all happened!" - "Well, let's call the police." We dialed "02", no one came up... Where else to call? I had the phone number of the 47th police station: I dialed the number, waited, no one came up either... Brothers and sisters, now we have such a life that you will be attacked, and you will sit at the phone for an hour while your door is broken, and you will not be able to get through anywhere. And we don't need to break down our door for an hour: if you push it once, it will break! And it is said in the Scriptures that it is in these times, when confusion will come, when fire will fall from heaven, when wild beasts will change their habitats, when women will give birth to monsters, in these times the sweet waters will become salty, and all friends will turn against each other; then the mind will be hidden, and the mind will retire to its storehouse. And then it is written: Many will seek it (that is, reason. – Author), but they will not find it; and unrighteousness and intemperance will abound in the earth (3 Ezra 5:10).And look how Ezra describes these times: One province will ask another, neighboring one: "Has not righteousness passed through you, which makes you righteous?" And it will say: "No" (3 Ezra 5:11). One asks the other: "Maybe you have a better one?" and he answers: "No, even worse!" On TV, they constantly show how one or another governor speaks: people seem to be trying to find where life is better, but everyone has their own problems. they will labor, and their ways will not be governed (3 Ezra 5:12). That is, labor will become useless: an honest person will never be able to earn money in a society dominated by criminals. And who can make money in such a society? Only a crook or a criminal! And it would be more correct to say – not to make money, but to steal.These are the monstrous times in which we live, brothers and sisters! And it becomes clear to us why it is in these times that sweet waters will become salty: the law of God will be deliberately distorted, they will try to abolish it, drive it into a ghetto, into a reservation. They will say this: "The Bible is for believers, and for the state - we have our own laws. The Bible is for Christians, and for the country we have the Constitution, codes, etc." And they will teach people in this way, and they are already teaching, and we calmly look at the fact that our state has become secular and has ceased to be religious, that is, it has ceased to obey the will of the Creator! And we think that this is in the order of things?! If so, then we are traitors to the law of God! After all, we must recognize only this law and in every possible way avoid attempts to distort it.It happens that those around us ask: "What should our country do?" ... Now everyone is interested: "What should we do? It was hard under Chernomyrdin, and even worse under Kiriyenko... What to do? Who to vote for? What is there to hope for?" ... And here we need to answer directly: "We must hope in God! Human laws will not help here: study the law of God!" And, submitting to the will of the Creator, His absolute power (and all power, as we have found out, belongs only to God), we will all truly be the people of God. Let it be among the wolves — but by the people of God! Let it be in the darkness that surrounds us, but the light of Christ will shine even in this darkness, and the darkness will not envelop it! Only the Lord God is our King, He is our Ruler. And it is said that without His will not even a hair of our head will be lost (cf. Luke 21:18). But if even a hair does not fall without His will, will the Lord not be able to govern our family life, teach us how to raise children correctly, how to equip our land, how to govern our state? Only the Lord possesses the fullness of wisdom and truth, and this truth is the commandments of God. Each commandment of God teaches us how to live, how to act correctly, how to build relations with neighboring states... Scripture regulates all things, absolutely everything! And we are told: "The Bible is no longer relevant! Let them read the Bible in church."One day I was summoned to court as a consultant on a religious issue. And when I opened the Holy Scriptures and began to read, everyone shouted: "The Bible is not a book for judgment, we have other books!" And so it is in reality: we have not even noticed, brothers and sisters, how people have rejected the law of God and replaced the commandments of the Creator with human traditions! That is why we, Orthodox Christians, in the midst of general confusion, must not succumb to general panic: we know that at a time when all earthly governments are reeling and are on the brink of war, the Throne of the Lord is not shaking, it stands firm! At a time when all the laws in our state do not work and do not work, God's commandments are always unchangeable and holy! Borders are constantly being remade, states are uniting, disuniting (in Eastern Europe everyone is divided, in Western Europe everyone is united) – this is all human, it is people doing something of their own. The Kingdom of God is one, and it will be both in Heaven and on earth! "Thy kingdom come..., as in heaven and on earth." That is, sooner or later all these human boundaries will disappear and there will be only the Kingdom of God! And there will be only one authority – from God, as in Heaven and on earth. Therefore, let us not associate ourselves with the temporary speculations of modern politics, but let us stand firm in our stand for God's truth.That is why the Apostle James says: Does sweet and bitter water flow from the same opening of the spring? If you have accepted the will of God, accept it completely, be in agreement with it in everything! ^The sermon was delivered during the next bombing of Iraq. ^Behold, all you who kindle fire armed with incendiary arrows, go into the flame of your fire and the arrows that you have kindled! (Isaiah 50:11). ^

Part 2