Showing concern for man, the Saviour of the world, by His sufferings on the Cross and Resurrection, opened the doors of paradise to him, made him a partaker of His eternal Kingdom, and also sent the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Who cries out in the hearts of the faithful: "Abba Father" (Gal. 4:6) (2:279). The very name "Father," teaches the Zadonsk ascetic, should arouse the fire of love in every person. And if children in the flesh unfailingly love their father, then with what love should Christians love Him whom they call their Father (5:234).

An important means of arousing love for God are also providentially tolerated sorrows, trials and temptations. And just as a son shows gratitude to his father, if he educates him in good morals and abstinence by timely punishments and thereby makes him a worthy member of society, so a Christian should be infinitely grateful to God for the fact that by His providential actions He not only cleanses him from the defilement of sin, but also makes him a worthy inhabitant of the Heavenly City (4:352).

Man's love for his Creator must extend to infinity also for the reason that He is long-suffering about his sins and does not immediately punish his iniquities, but awaits repentance (1:160; 5:76). If God in His justice punished a person for every crime, then he would not be able to live even a short time, as the Prophet testified: "If thou hast seen iniquity, O Lord, Lord, who shall stand?" (Psalm 129:3) (1:88). God's mercy to the repentant sinner is so great that if the latter has a firm intention not to return to sin again, then the Lord not only forgives him his sins, but will not even remember them forever (5:352).

And finally, the Lord Himself urges the believer to love God, Who gave the commandment (Deuteronomy 6:5) and draws human hearts to it with His reciprocal love (2:278). "The God of Love is, and abiding in love, abides in God" (1 John 4:16). That is why every Christian must show love for God not only in words, but also in his life.

God is the highest Love, Beauty and Goodness, and all these qualities the Lord in His goodness put into man at his creation (4:356-357). The All-Good Creator wanted man to enjoy bliss and all good things in communion with Him. This blessed state, the saint notes, is accessible to a loving person not only in the life to come, where he will test it perfectly and see God face to face, but also in this life, according to the words of the Saviour: "If any man love Me, he shall keep My word, and My Father shall love him, and we shall come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14, 23) (2:281).

In its essence, love is indefinable in words, because it has a divine origin (3:148). This is the fruit of the spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit; Only those who have tasted its sweetness can know love (2:276). But just as the sun reveals itself to the world by its rays, as a hidden fire is revealed by warmth, and a fragrant balm by a pleasant smell, so love, although it is hidden in the heart, cannot remain hidden and manifests itself externally by its fruits. And it is only through these fruits that it is to some extent accessible to knowledge (5:234; 2:276) [Speaking of the fruits of love, the Holy Father remarks that he does not mean worldly love].

The first thing that St. Tikhon of Zadonsk draws attention to when he speaks of the fruits of love is the zealous fulfillment of the will of God (2:276). The God-lover constantly strives to fulfill what is prescribed by the will of God, and this, in turn, restrains him from sinful inclinations. And if such a person happens to violate the will of God in any way through weakness, then he "grieves greatly, is contrite, sighs, and often sheds tears" (1:86). It is quite understandable that such sorrow contributes even more to the salvation of the Christian (2 Corinthians 7:10); it moves him even more to fulfill the will of God, and not for fear of punishment, but so as not to offend the Beloved" (2:276). Based on the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who said: "Thou shalt have My commandments, and keep them, that is, thou shalt love Me" (John 14:21), St. Tikhon teaches that love for Christ, the Son of God, must be expressed in the zealous fulfillment of His holy commandments (3:142). And those Christians who treat the commandments with negligence do not have the love of God: "they love themselves and their lusts, and not God and His holy law" (5:235).

With the zealous fulfillment of the will of God, as the fruit of true Christian love for God, there appears in the soul of a Christian an abhorrence of worldly sinful defilement, which should be understood as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (3:146). He places all his hope and consolation in the one God, and all the goods of the world will become like rubbish for him. If he had great material values at his disposal or if he had high power, then in this case he remains faithful to his duty and uses the goods given to him for the glory of God. All the concern of such a person comes down to one goal: to do the will of God and to be useful to those around him and to society as a whole (1:85).

A Christian can have a heart inspired by love for God only when he completely breaks all connection with sin by bringing sincere repentance (4:355). And without this, there can be no true love for his Creator in him, but only feigned hypocrisy (3:165). If someone loves God, constantly cares about the fulfillment of His holy will, and carefully watches that his heart does not cling to anything earthly, he will naturally always remember God and have Him in his heart. So it is among people: if someone loves someone, he constantly thinks about him (5:235). For example, "a good son loves his mother or father, because he loves them heartily, often remembers them when he does not see them or is far from them" (2:277). It is the same with a person who loves God. All his thoughts, desires and heartfelt sighs are always directed to God, as "a flame of fire strives for high" (2:104; 2:23). The constant remembrance of a loving heart about God consists, according to the Wonderworker of Zadonsk, in uninterrupted thanksgiving for His infinite mercies to sinful man (2:302), in prayerful conversation with Him and contemplation of God (1:159).

As St. Tikhon shows, the feeling of gratitude is born from contemplation of God's blessings; Since these blessings are "not only innumerable, but also incomprehensible to the mind," the feeling of gratitude in a loving person should never dry up (2:303). "Wherever we look," says the Holy Father, "wherever we turn our eyes and minds, everywhere we have sufficient opportunities to glorify the goodness of God" (2:308). And this gratitude on the part of man is a God-pleasing means, attracting into his soul the grace-filled streams of Divine life.

And vice versa, he who clings to worldly and vain things does not have the love of God, because "God's love and worldly love cannot be contained in one heart as surely as fire and water. For God is jealous, He desires that man should love Him with all His heart, and not with half of Him" (1:159). Attachment to the sinful passions of the world has such a pernicious effect on the life of a Christian that under their influence he can renounce Christ in his heart (3:147). Whoever does not constantly care to have God in his heart and does not exercise himself in prayer (1:86), who is blinded by self-love, which does not allow him to see the blessings poured out from above, is deprived of God's mercy. That is why ingratitude is a grave sin, which testifies to a lack of love for God and cries out to heaven for vengeance (2:310-318).

"The Name of God in itself is both holy and glorified"; it does not require our glorification, but all this is necessary for man. Just as the sun, "whether praised or reproached," always remains bright and sends out rays to the whole universe, so the glory of God "is not diminished by the blasphemy of men, nor increased by glorification" (3:73). But the true "lover of God seeketh the glory of God in all things... and prays that the Name of God may be glorified: hallowed be Thy Name, O Heavenly Father, as Christ taught" (2:277). In his work "On True Christianity," St. Tikhon shows how a believer should glorify the Name of God. Thus, according to him, God is glorified when the Holy Scriptures, preached by the holy prophets and apostles, are accepted by faith without doubt as a great gift of God; when true faith in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, flourishes; when a believer patiently endures difficulties and sorrows, oppression and persecution for the truth, honor and glory of God (3:77). Finally, the Name of God is glorified when a Christian does good deeds not for the sake of praise or reward, but for the glory of God: "Thus let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, Who is not in heaven" (Matt. 5:16) (3:78-79).

While glorifying God, a Christian at the same time feels in his heart a constant influx of new grace-filled forces that spiritualize him and direct him to the closest unity with the heavenly world. And this mood of a loving soul is expressed by the saint in the words: "A true lover of God desires to unite with the Beloved with all earnestness, which is why he often prays, sighs, weeps, crying out with the Prophet's heart: "In the same way that the deer longs for the springs of water, so my soul longs for Thee, O God" (Ps. 41, 2)" (2:277). Whoever loves God with all his heart and strives to unite spiritually with Him is not afraid of any obstacles and even death; together with the Apostle Paul, he would like to "be departed and be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23). A clear example of this is the holy martyrs, who "deigned to suffer the most cruel tortures and more sorrowful deaths, rather than to be separated from the beloved Son of God" (3:147). But often in the life of Christians it happens that many of them wish to be with the Lord and receive glorification and blessedness in His Kingdom, but they do not want to do what He (Christ) commanded, and to lead a life according to these commandments, justifying themselves by the impossibility of fulfilling them. This testifies to "that their heart is wrong, and they do not truly love Christ... they love themselves more than Christ... A true friend in misfortune is known... Thus is the true lover of Christ, who here in this world abides with Christ and clings to Him in his heart, and endures suffering or the cross with Him without complaint, and desires to be with Him inseparably in the age to come" (5:236).

From these arguments of St. Tikhon it follows that the consequence of true love for God is the uncomplaining endurance by a Christian of all the sorrows and trials of life, permitted by the good will of God (2:277), in order to strengthen him in patience and direct his spiritual strength to the acquisition of sincere love for God (2:300-301). And those who do not strive to acquire this "godlike virtue" are like a shadow that is near its object only during the sunshine, and as soon as the latter begins to move, the shadow moves with it. But when there is no sunlight, then the shadow recedes from the object. So it is with those "who... in prosperity they think to thank God, but in adversity they murmur; they do not tolerate it and turn to enlist help from the creature, in order to get rid of the misfortune that has found them" (3:142).