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.

But if a certain king reigns over men, but he himself is ruled by vile passions and sins: love of money and anger, deceit and unrighteousness, pride and rage, and most evil of all unbelief and blasphemy, such a king is not God's servant, but of devils, and not a king, but a tormentor. Our Lord Jesus Christ calls such a king, for his wickedness, not a king, but a fox: "Go," He says, "speak to this fox" (Luke 13:32). And the prophet says: "A haughty king will perish, because his ways are dark." And the three youths not only did not obey the command of King Nebuchadnezzar, but also called him a lawless enemy, a hateful apostate, and the worst king in all the earth (Dan. 3:32). And do not listen to a king or a prince who inclines you to wickedness or deceit, even if he torments you or threatens you with death. This is taught to us by the prophets, apostles, and all the martyrs who were killed by impious kings, but did not obey their command.

This is how it is proper to serve kings and princes. And enough about that.

Let us speak further about how now, in the New Testament, we should worship the Lord God and serve Him alone.

First of all, a true Christian must know, from the Holy Scriptures, what God is and how one should think about God now, and then he will truly know how to worship the Lord God and serve Him alone. Not like the Jews, who confess God in one Person and in one Hypostasis of the Father, and reject the Son and the Holy Spirit, and not like the Greeks, who worship many gods, but one should confess and venerate three Persons and three Hypostases, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the One God.

When you hear that the Father begat the Son, and that the Spirit proceeds from the Father, do not think that God the Father was created as we are, and do not think that He begat the Son who was created, as we give birth, and that the Holy Spirit disperses through the air like our breath: the mystery of the Holy Trinity is ineffable and ineffable, and incomprehensible either to the angelic or to the human mind. An intelligible God is not God: for if we cannot comprehend or describe an angel or our created soul, how much more is it fitting for the Creator of all things to be incomprehensible! And all who tried to comprehend God tried to measure the abyss with handfuls; and the deeper they descended, the more they deviated into the heresies of the enemy, because this mystery is ineffable and unspeakable. Do not say, "How?" because it is greater than any "so." Do not ask, "In what way?" because the Image of God is greater than any image.

What we learn from the Holy Scriptures about God does not correspond to the measure of the Divine nature, but corresponds to the weakness of those who hear. And now, since time is in a hurry, we will speak of Him briefly, according to our weakness, in the words of Holy Scripture, which says thus: God is eternal, He is and will be. Eternal means that it has neither beginning nor end. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, in three Persons, in three Hypostases, holy in three Persons, eternal in three Persons, the Creator in three Persons, the King in three Persons, the Lord in three Persons, in three Persons the One Nature, the three-sun, the three-light, the three-light, the One God in three Hypostases, the One Being in three Hypostases, the One Essence in three Persons.

When you hear about three Persons, three Hypostases, do not think that these are three Gods – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but preach the One God – the Holy Trinity.