But, you see, the Apostle says this about holy and God-bearing men who had the Holy Spirit in them: for he says that the temple of God lives in you, and that you are the temple of the living God. Of such the Lord Himself said: "I and the Father — "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23. That is why the Apostle called them God's temple. However, it was the apostles who took care of the establishment of churches and commanded all future generations to do so, but they did not forbid it.

When Chrysostom says: "The Church is not walls, but an assembly of faithful pious people," then our Father Chrysostom does not say this because he forbids the creation of churches, for how can he deny what God commanded the prophets and apostles to do and bequeathed to the holy fathers? For Chrysostom himself says in another place: "The Church is brighter than the heavens." He only wishes to show that even if we build churches and adorn them in every way, but defile ourselves with sins and passions and filthy deeds, then God, wishing to turn sinners to fear and chastity, will spare neither the holy churches, nor His image, nor the Most Pure Mysteries. For He did not spare the holy Ark, but delivered it over to the foreigners with lawless priests. And he said to Solomon: "If thou shalt keep... My laws, I will set your royal throne over Israel forever... If... ye shall not keep my commandments... then I will destroy Israel from off the face of the earth... and the temple which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast away from before me, and it will be... a proverb and a laughing stock among all nations" (1 Kings 9:4-7), as it happened in the time of Jeconiah and Zedekiah: God gave up the city, and the church, and the king's house, and all the rest that was consecrated to God — and the cherubim of glory, and the garments, and the prophecies, and the instructions, and the consecrated vessels, together with the enraged people — He gave up to be trampled under foot and defiled (See 2 Kings 24-25); but under Zerubbabel and Joshua the son of Jozadek and Ezra, the church and the city were revived again (see 1 Ezra). You see: when people with the king became corrupt, then both the church and the people were given over to trampling and desecration. But when Zerubbabel and those who were with him had mercy on God, then both the church and the people were recreated by God. But when they again returned to vile deeds, then under Antiochus the church and the people were again given over to trampling down and desecration.

And not only then was it so, but also until the last days it is so, as it is written in the Otechnik. There was an elder in Jerusalem. He saw himself in the church of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, and at the same time there was a great stench in the church, and he asked the angel: "Where does this stench come from, and why do you not deliver from it?" And soon the Persians came and burned with fire both the church and those who dwelt in it unworthily. When they turned away from their malice and from the unrighteous deeds of their hands, the Lord God was moved with compassion and helped the pious king Heraclius, who defeated the Persians and rebuilt the destroyed church.

See how well Chrysostom says: the church is not walls, but an assembly of pious people, so that people do not become proud only of churches, and anger God by their deeds. One should also please God with good works, and create God's churches, and stand in them with fear and trembling, and honor the Divine with faith and love.

By venerating a church, an icon, holy relics, or the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, and divine things, you honor the one whose church, or icon, or relics, and in addition, you honor God Himself. If you dishonor a church, or an icon, or holy relics, you dishonor God Himself and His true servants.

For if anyone dishonors the royal image, he is subject to beheading. How much more is he who dishonors the Heavenly King, or the images of His saints, or the church – what torment is he worthy of? According to the Divine rules, in this life he must be executed by beheading and given over to eternal damnation, and after death he must be condemned to eternal fire, with the devil and with the Jews who crucified Christ, who said: "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt. 27:25).

And he who with faith and love, with fear and trembling, venerates the all-honorable and Divine icons, and the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross, and the Holy Gospel, and the most pure Mysteries of God, and the consecrated vessels in which the Divine Mysteries are performed, and the all-honorable relics of the saints, and the Church of God, and worships them, — he, as a good-natured and good servant, will live well and piously in this present age, but in the future he will hear the blessed and sweet voice: "Good and faithful servant.. enter into the joy of thy master" (Matt. 25:21). "Where I am, there shall My servant be" (John 12:26), will pray for all of us to our most blessed Lady the Mother of God, Whose all-honorable icon we venerate with honor, and to all the saints who have pleased God from all eternity, whose wounds and sufferings for Christ we, lovingly kissing their icon images, venerate, for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom glory belongeth with the Father and the Most Holy Spirit, now, always, and unto the ages of ages.

Let us also say how one should honor one another, and how one should worship or serve a king, or a prince, or a ruler, and how one should now worship the Lord God and serve Him alone.

Think about it: we honor one another because God originally created man in His own image; therefore all have the same honor and remind of the common Lord.

From the ancients we adopted the custom of bowing to one another, for the book of Genesis says: "Jacob looked, and saw, and behold, Esau his brother was coming... and he bowed down to the ground seven times" (Gen. 33:1, 3). And again: Jacob saw Joseph his son, and bowed down on the top of his staff; and the brothers of Joseph, when they saw Joseph, fell down on their faces and worshipped him (cf. Gen. 42:6; 47:31; cf. Heb. 11:21). And Moses, seeing Jethro, bowed down to the ground (cf. Exodus 18:7).

Also because we bow down to one another, because our brethren are members of the body, in Christ, "born not of perishable seed, but of incorruptible seed, of the living word of God" (1 Pet. 1:23), and having received divine baptism in the same font. For God said: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. 19:18), and in the Gospel the Lord says: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another" (Jn. 13:34), and again: "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (Jn. 13:35), "in reverence warn one another" (Rom. 12:10). And again: as Christ "laid down His life for us: and we must lay down our lives for our brethren" (1 John 3:16). And our holy divine fathers say: if you have seen your brother, you have seen the Lord your God. Even if they enmity, or reproach, or offend, or wound, let nothing separate us from their love, as the Lord says: "Love your enemies... do good to them that hate you" (Matt. 5:44).

If someone forbids to fulfill the commandments of the Lord or proclaims heretical teachings, then one should not only turn away from him, but also run away from him, as from a snake. One should also be angry with such a person, according to the prophetic word: "When you are angry, do not sin" (Psalm 4:5). And our Lord Jesus Christ says: "If he will not listen to the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publican" (Matt. 18:17). And again: "If... thy right eye offends thee: pluck it out, and cast it from thee" (Matt. 5:29). And the Apostle says: "Do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but also rebuke" (Ephesians 5:11). And again: "Cast out the corrupt one from among you" (1 Corinthians 5:13), "for what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity?" (2 Corinthians 6:14). And again the Apostle says: "O heretic, after the first and second admonition, turn away" (Titus 3:10). And much is said about this in the Holy Scriptures.

This is how we should bow to each other. A heretic should not only bow down, but should turn away from him.

If you worship or serve a king, or a prince, or a ruler, then you should worship and serve because it is pleasing to God to show obedience and obedience to the authorities: for they care and think about us. For it is written: "Thou shalt not blaspheme the ruler among thy people" (Exodus 22:28). And the Apostle says: "Fear God, honor the king" (1 Pet. 2:17), and: "Servants, obey your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling" (Ephesians 6:5), as people to whom God has given preference and endowed them with authority, and who can do good and torment the body, but not the soul. Therefore, one should worship and serve them with the body, and not with the soul, and honor them as a king, and not as God, for the Lord says: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Matt. 22:21). If you worship and serve in this way, it will not be for you to perish your soul, but in this way you will learn to fear God even more: for the King "is God's servant" (Romans 13:4), for mercy and punishment to people.