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.

10) A true lover of Christ should be diligent not only in almsgiving, but also in other good works, such as meekness, gentleness, patience, abstinence, chastity, humility and other Christian virtues, as Christ taught us by His word and example. If we want to love Christ and please Him, we must live virtuously, do what He taught us in word and deed.

In order that with God's help we may be aroused to the love of Christ, Christian, let us consider some of its circumstances and with God's help let us learn:

1) Christ says: "Whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father" (John 14:21). Oh, how comforting this word is! so great and lofty vows are offered by the Son of God to him who loves Him, so that he who truly loves Christ has friendship with the Father and His Son, and where the Father and the Son are, there the Holy Spirit is inseparable. Friendship is nothing but mutual love – to be loved and to love. The human mind does not comprehend this goodness of God. God, great, immortal, infinite and incomprehensible with man, His creature and servant, wants to have friendship, and He does, if one does not separate himself from it. Our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, – says the Apostle to Christians for consolation (1 John 1:3). Therefore He saith unto His faithful, to His beloved, and to those who love Him: "Ye are My friends, if ye do what I command you" (John 15:14). It is a lofty and great thing to have friendship with an earthly king, and an incomparably greater one with the King of Heaven. Let us love one another, dear Christian, so that we may thus show our love for Christ, and have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

2) Christ also says: "I will appear to him Myself" (John 14:21). To whom shall I appear? A man, a slave and a sinner. Who will come? King of heaven and earth, Lord of glory, Son of God, and Word of the Father. Not through an angel or anyone else I will visit him, but I will appear to him Myself, I will visit him Myself, I will come to him Myself, I will appear to him Myself. To whom? To Him who loves Me and keeps My commandments.

Oh, the power and action of love, which attracts the Lord to the servant, and God to man, and the Creator to the creature!

O Thy goodness, Jesus! You pour out love into the hearts of those who believe in you, and your love draws you to those who love you. Who can truly love Thee without Thee? Our heart without Thee and Thy grace is nothing but a withered rod, which produces no fruit. Thy love precedes all and kindles in the hearts of our cold ones love for Thee, and for Thy grace, with which we cooperate, Thou givest new grace. Thus, everywhere Thy goodness bypasses and precedes us and follows us.

How does Christ appear to the souls who love Him? When He lived in the flesh on earth and preached His word, He revealed Himself to everyone, to His friends and enemies. But after His resurrection He showed Himself to some friends, as we read. He showed Himself from heaven to Saint Stephen, when he bore witness of Him before his enemies (Acts 7:55-56). And this is the visible manifestation of Christ. Spiritually, however, He appears to His friends, when He enters into their hearts through His Holy Spirit and enlightens, comforts, and rejoices them. And He will appear to all those who love Him when He comes in His terrible glory, and He will call them into His eternal kingdom, saying: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:34).