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).

Then He will appear to His enemies, but in a different way, that is, as a terrible King and a terrible Judge, from Whose wrath they will wish to hide in caves and crevices of stone (Rev. 6:16), and will cast them away from Him into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Let us also, Christians, open our hearts to Jesus, Who loves us, so that this most beloved Guest may visit us with His love for mankind. He wants to come to everyone who does not shut his house before Him: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Rev. 3:20). Let us open to Him now the doors of our hearts, that then He also may open to us the doors of His kingdom.

3) Christ also says: "Let us come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). Look, Christian, what is vouchsafed by grace to him who loves Christ: he is the home and dwelling place of the Most Holy Trinity! The Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit will gracefully dwell in him! People consider it a great thing to receive the earthly king into their house, how incomparably greater is the privilege of receiving the King of Heaven into the house of their hearts, and not only to receive him, but also to have him living, as he says: Let us come to him and make our abode with him. Blessed indeed is such a heart. What else can there be but peace, tranquility, joy and gladness? The Kingdom of God is within him (Luke 17:21).

Even in this vale of sorrow, it feels joy, which is abundantly poured into the hearts of the elect in eternal life. It truly tastes how good the Lord is (Psalm 33:9). Beloved, having such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, making holy things in the fear of God, the Apostle exhorts us (2 Corinthians 7:1). For the Lord does not dwell in hearts that are defiled by the unclean love of this world. For what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity? What does light have to do with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14). For our God is light, and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5), but the love of this world is darkness, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of this world (1 John 2:16). Those who wish to receive the earthly king into their homes purify the house, how much more must he who desires to receive the King of Heaven purify the house of his heart.

4) As the sweetness of Christ's love attracts, so His beneficence, which He showed us from the only strongest love for us, convinces us to love Christ. Remember, Christian, what did the Son of God do for our sake, what did He invent, what did He not endure and suffer for the sake of your wretched and poor soul? what labors and illnesses did He not take upon Himself in order to bring us, who have fallen away, to His Heavenly Father? If someone had turned away the wrath of the earthly king, who threatened you with the death penalty, and instead of death had asked him for your life, and, not content with this high mercy to you, had interceded for you a noble and high honorable position, deigning to endure every calamity for this purpose, oh, how earnestly and sincerely you would love such a benefactor! Nature itself convinces us to do so. Christ, the Son of God, the wrath that threatened us all with eternal death, turned us away from us who believe in Him, and so delivered us from eternal death, moreover, brought us into such high mercy to God, that He gave to those who believe in His name the power to become children of God (John 1:12), and this honor is so high that all the glory of this world is like nothing before it. All nobility and majesty of this world is only an empty name and title, having no thing in itself, which is like a water bubble, or a bellows, haughty air, which outwardly appears as something, but has nothing inside. Christian nobility is true, eternal and incomprehensible, which Christ deserved for us with His Blood. And so tell me, perhaps, how can we not love such a high Lover and Benefactor? If a small benefactor is worthy of love, how much more is a great one. If anyone saves us from temporal misfortune, misfortune and death, he will do us temporal and earthly good, how much more is our Christ, O Christians, worthy of this, for He did not deliver us from temporal misfortune and death, but from eternal, not temporal, but eternal life, not temporal and earthly, but eternal honor and glory.

Oh, how insensible you are, sinful soul, when you do not feel this! It is truly insensible when you love a man who has lent you temporarily and little (for all that is temporal is nothing against the eternal), yet you love such a benefactor, thank him, honor him, serve him, and do everything that pleases him, but Christ, Who has lent you eternally and infinitely, Whose good deed done to you cannot be recompensed in any way, is not even vouchsafed by you, what a benefactor he is. Thus thou dost base Christ's former incarnation, birth, life on earth, patience, humility, suffering, and death on the cross, by which grace the angels marvel, sing, glorify, and magnify (Luke 2:14).

Christ, for your sake and Himself, did not spare Him, but for His name you pity brass and silver, although all that you have is Him (both His brass and silver, which you spare for Him). Christ humbled Himself for your sake, but for His sake you do not want to abandon your pride. Christ, being rich, became poor for your sake, but for His sake you do not want to forsake your avarice and love of money. Christ endured reproach, scolding, spitting, crucifixion and death on the cross for your sake, but for His sake you do not want to endure even a reproachful word. For your sake I came down from heaven, that I might lift you up from paradise to heaven. For your sake I was born in the flesh, that I might appropriate you, regenerated by the Spirit. For your sake I humbled myself, that I might exalt you. For your sake I became poor, that I might enrich you, a wretched one. For your sake I endured dishonor and wounds, that I might heal and glorify you. I died for your sake, that I might revive you, who were dead. To such deep condescension and humility nothing else but His great love for you and compassionate mercy attracted Him. Do you neglect His lofty love and grace and do not want to serve and please Him with love, but forsaking Him, Who truly loves you, give your heart to His adversary?

5) What have you found, sinner, in Jesus, who loves you, that is displeasing to you? what do you see in Him that does not attract you to His love?