Such was St. Paul, who, with burning love for Christ, cried out: "I have a desire to depart and be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23).

7) He who loves his beloved follows the disposition, and everyone seeks to have friendship with his fellow. That is why it happens that true friendship cannot exist if it is not between the good and the like-minded. There is no communication between the humble and the proud, the sober with the drunkard, the chaste with the unclean, the generous and merciful with the covetous, the extortionate, and the hard-hearted, but one turns away from the other, and everyone seeks what he loves. Thus he who loves Christ tries to follow His most gracious and Divine morals: he is humble, patient, meek, not malicious, loving, peaceful, simple-hearted, sincere, merciful, merciful, compassionate, and so on, not for the sake of merit, but for the sake of the fact that Christ is such and has such virtues.

8) The lover thinks in the same way with the beloved and agrees with him in everything, and what the beloved strives for, the lover also strives for. Otherwise, there would be no agreement and like-mindedness in them, when one of them thought differently about this, and the other about the other, intended and began, that mutual love and friendship are contrary to each other, and because of this mutual love is ruined and friendship ceases. Friendship, as it has been said, cannot exist, if not between those of the same nature. Christ desires and seeks salvation for all. This is true and known, for His coming into the world signifies and shows that He wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

Therefore, whoever loves Christ cares for his own salvation as well as for his neighbor's. He who loves with his beloved must have one thought, one effort and care. And although this office applies most of all to the servants of God, it also concerns all Christians, for Christianity is a spiritual body. In the material body, one member takes care of another and helps, for example, the hand wipes the hand, washes it, the eyes take care of the whole body, and so on, so in the spiritual body, that is, Christianity, one must take care of the other.

This is prayer, advice, loving rebuke. True love wants for its neighbor what it wants for itself, and tries to turn its neighbor away from what it itself is fleeing from. When Christ, after His resurrection, asked the Apostle Peter: Simon Jonah! Do You Love Me? – and Saint Peter answered: Yes, Lord! Thou knowest that I love Thee, – then He said to him: "Feed My sheep" (John 21:16). As if the Lord had said so: "Simon! If you love Me, feed My sheep." From this it is evident how precious our salvation is to the Lord Jesus. And he teaches them that whoever wants to love Him must strive not only for his own salvation, but also for his neighbor's salvation. That is why the Apostle says with regret: "All seek their own, and not that which is pleasing to Jesus Christ" (Phil. 2:21). From this lies how gravely the shepherds sin against Christ, who, being in the flock, do not feed the sheep of Christ, but only shepherd themselves, for which they are subject to the dreadful judgment of God, for the Lord will seek his sheep out of their hand (Ezekiel 34:10).

9) He who loves glory and honor for his beloved desires and seeks and rejoices when his beloved is glorified, but grieves when he is dishonored. Thus a son rejoices when he hears that his father has a good name, and a friend rejoices when his beloved friend is glorified. Love is touched by what it sees in the beloved, as if it were its own, and so it imputs the well-being and misfortune of the beloved as its own. Thus, whoever loves Christ seeks in all things the glory of His name, and not his own, and rejoices when His holy name is glorified. The name of Christ is glorified when those who confess His name live worthy of confession and the faith, which they confess with their lips, show by good works. So it is with a man, for example, a father, when his children live virtuously, and for a master, when his servants are constantly converting, honor and glory. For people, seeing the honest life of their children, praise the father, and seeing the constancy of the servants, they ascribe honor to the master: to know, they say, a good father that he has such children, and a reasonable master who so decently supports slaves. From this it is evident that Christ dishonors lawless Christians by His life.

10) He who loves does not love him who is disgusting to his beloved: the son of his father's adversary does not love, the wife of the adversary does not love her husband, the friend of her friend's adversary. For the heart, in which love has its place, cannot be divided, but clings either to one or the other, and cannot love those who are contrary to each other together, but without fail, having left one, clings to the other, as Christ says: No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will be zealous for the one, and neglect the other (Matt. 6:24). This world is repugnant to Christ, because whoever loves Christ does not love this world, according to the teaching of the Apostle: "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15). The world here is understood not as heaven and earth with their fulfillment, but as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, as the Apostle teaches (1 John 2:16). Through this, Satan leads us, like Adam in Paradise through eating from the commanded tree, from Christ and obedience to Him. The riches, honor, glory and sweetness of this world are a pleasant sight for our flesh, it points to them, it is deceived by Satan, the ancient serpent – as Eve pointed out to Adam the apple of the commanded tree – and wants to turn the heart away from the love of Christ and turn to His creation, and instead of the Creator to love the creature. The heart, embraced by the love of Christ, turns away from this evil counsel, although outwardly it also seems good.

At the same time, Christian, know that it is one thing to have wealth, honor and glory, and another to love. The right possession of wealth, honor and glory does not expel the love of Christ. Many were rich and glorious, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, and others, as many pious kings and high persons do now, but they truly loved Christ. But love for the riches, honor, and glory of this world is not combined with the love of Christ, but drives out the other. He cannot love Christ as long as he loves silver, gold, veneration and glorification from man. On the contrary, he does not love silver, honor and glory of men, as long as he loves Christ, according to the word of Christ: "No one can serve two masters, and so on" (Matt. 6:24).

No matter how you turn and change your opinion, it is absolutely necessary to cling to one of them and cling – either to Christ and leave the world, or to the world and leave Christ. And from this it is evident that those who are addicted to the world, that is, to the honor, riches, and sweetness of this world, leave Christ, and thus destroy faith, and deny Him in their hearts, although they confess with their lips, as the Apostle teaches: "They say that they know God, but by their deeds they deny it" (Titus 1:16).

11) True love achieves that he who loves does not renounce dying for his beloved. The love of the lover binds him so tightly to the beloved, that he would rather endure everything, and death itself, than be separated from the beloved, and death and sorrow are more pleasant to him than separation from the beloved. Thus the Son of God's love for the human race persuaded Him to become incarnate and die for fallen man, and thus to appropriate him to Himself and to be a partaker of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and to make eternal glory rather than to see him rejected and perishing. In the same way, it is more pleasant for him who truly loves Christ to endure all sorrow and all death than to be separated from Christ and Christ's love.

True and ardent love is so strong and strong that nothing can defeat it, and the union by which it is bound with its beloved can be broken. He who truly loves Christ can be bound, imprisoned, chained, broken into limbs, burned and killed, but he cannot be defeated. The power of love is spiritual, and not bodily, and therefore, although the body is conquered, wounded, tormented and killed, love cannot be defeated, but on the contrary, the more it shows its strength and strength, the more it endures and suffers. Such was the love of the holy martyrs, who preferred to give themselves over to the most cruel tortures and sorrowful deaths, rather than to be separated from their beloved Son of God, and many themselves, inflamed with zeal for their beloved Christ, came to the place of torture and to the torturers, and spontaneously deigned to suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is wondrous to us, dear Christians, that people love Christ so much, but it is even more surprising that our reason surpasses that Christ loved us, sinners, so much that He deigned to die for us. People love Christ who loved Him: "It was not we," says the Apostle, "who loved God, but He who loved us" (1 John 4:10). Christ loved us, His enemies and apostates. Marvel at this love, Christians! From here you will taste and see how good the Lord is (Psalm 33:9).

Note, Christian:

1) That all these actions and fruits of love follow from the fact that the lover is united with the beloved heart and love, so that from the two they become one. For love makes one heart and soul out of two hearts and souls, not materially, but spiritually and of one mind, as St. Luke tells us about the Christians who were in the time of the apostles: "And the multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul" (Acts 4:32).

2) You see how strong and strong love is, so that nothing can destroy its union.