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.

3) Just as without love every deed is dead and useless, so by love every deed is enlivened and beneficial to everyone. Without love, there can be no good, and where there is love, there is all good.

4) True love for Christ comes from true faith in Christ and from the Holy Spirit. Faith presents Christ to the faithful, for He is true life, true bliss, true and eternal joy and sweetness, except for Him there can be no true blessedness. And thus, through faith, the enlightened heart, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, is kindled to the love of the highest good, which is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And the more Christ is known, His grace is felt in the heart of the faithful, the more ardent love for Him is kindled, for the more good is known, the more loved it is. For we cannot love good without knowing it, just as we cannot know the sweetness of honey without tasting honey. Therefore it is written: "Taste and see how good the Lord is" (Psalm 3:9).

5) From this you see that a fearless and lawless life cannot be combined with both faith and love of Christ, as Christ Himself says: "He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words" (John 14:24). Likewise, a heart addicted to the world has neither faith nor love for Christ, no matter what outward deeds a person does. Everything that is contrary to Christ and comes from arbitrariness, drives the faith and love of Christ out of the heart. And from this it follows that the Apostle wrote: "Whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God" (James 4:4). This is terrible, but true. For as many times as a man sins out of arbitrariness, so many times does the law of God and eternal destroy and resist the Giver of the Lawgiver, and how many times does he deviate and cling to the world, so many times does he stretch out his hand with Adam to the commanded tree. God commanded: "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15).

6) From this it follows that Christians who have lost faith and love with faith (there can be no faith without love) have abandoned Christ Himself, and instead of Christ they revere the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life as a threefold god.

7) Only carnal, and not Christian, love is possessed by those who only love their friends and those who love themselves. True Christian love embraces all, friends and enemies, with its embrace. Likewise, those who abundantly reward their relatives, for example, children, brethren, fathers, mothers, and other relatives, and those who ask for the sake of the name of Christ, or completely neglect and send them away, or are satisfied with a half-heartedness, – all such love themselves, their flesh and blood, and not Christ and for Christ's sake. For Christian love over relatives and non-relatives is propitiated. To her is a kinsman who is poor and destitute. There she bows down and stretches out her hand, where poverty is declared and the name of Christ is commemorated.

8) Those who do good to others in order to be loved do unpraiseworthily and suffer from self-love, and here not for the sake of the name of Christ, but for their own benefit, good deeds happen. A true lover of Christ does good to those who do not love Him, heeding the word of Christ: "Give to him who asks of you" (Matt. 5:42).

9) To this group belong also those who give alms, so that those who receive them may pray to God for them, for here too one's own benefit is sought, and not Christ's honor and neighbor's benefit. Otherwise, they would not have given them, when they did not hope for their prayers. True love does not seek its own (1 Cor. 13:5). And every deed is judged from the end, that is, whether it is done for God's glory and neighbor's benefit, or for the sake of one's own gain. Those who accept alms should be grateful to their benefactors and pray for them, but those who give should simply give, without their benefit, and look only at the poverty of the beggar, whom Christ commanded to have mercy on. And whether or not those who accept alms will pray, the alms will certainly receive their recompense, according to the Scriptures: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matt. 5:7). Almsgiving, given simply from a pure and loving heart, prays without a voice, and prays more than all people.