What should we think about attaining perfection in faith and virtue in the Church?
The Apostle Peter says that Christians must perfect themselves in the Church through the means appointed for that purpose and through their own effort: "as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love" (2 Pet. 1:3-7). Thus, the perfection of a person is attained through the grace of God and the personal effort of each individual. Moreover, the reception of God's grace, as is evident from the words of the Apostle Peter, is inseparably linked with the personal effort of the Christian: whoever escapes "the corruption that is in the world through lust" becomes "a partaker of the divine nature."
In what is the Christian's effort expressed?
The effort is expressed in the internal struggle against evil and in forcing oneself to do good.
What are the means of this struggle?
There are many; the main ones are abstinence and prayer.
Did the Savior point them out?
He did. The Lord said that the demonic kind "does not go out except by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21). And since every sinful lust in the world has arisen and arises from the instigation of the devil, the struggle with sin is a struggle with the devil, who is overcome by fasting and prayer.
Is there fasting in the Christian Church?
Yes.
Is there prayer in the Christian Church?
Yes.
Are public sacred rites and all prayer manifested externally not negated by the words of the Savior, that "the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24)?
These words of the Savior do not reject any sacred rites or prayers. Here the Lord speaks of the fact that service to God must be virtuous, true, so that both soul and body participate in the good struggle.
How do sectarians understand these quoted words of the Lord?
Sectarians understand Christ's words as the abolition of all sacred rites and all external manifestations of Christian prayer.
Do not sectarians themselves allow external ritual actions?
They do. They utter prayers aloud, bow their heads, fall on their knees, perform water baptism, the laying on of hands, break bread, drink wine, etc.
How then did we say above that sectarians understand the Savior's words about worship in spirit and truth as a rejection of all formal prayer actions?
We said this quite correctly about the sectarians. Sectarians indeed interpret the quoted words of the Savior, spoken to the Samaritan woman, in this way, as stated, but they interpret them this way only when sectarians need to reject Christian Orthodox sacred rites; they do not apply these words with their interpretation to themselves. Sectarians are dishonest people in their attacks on the Church of Christ, and like shameless ones, they are not constrained by any means: they invent sacred rites themselves, but call the church's rites a dead form and reject them, covering themselves with the Savior's words about worshiping God in spirit and truth.
Do the Church's sacred rites indeed turn out to be a "form"?
They do. Each sacred rite has a certain form, which received its beginning from Christ and the Apostles, or from the God-enlightened Fathers of the Church. But each form has a wise content, in accordance with the spirit and truth of God; each form has content that teaches believers the righteousness of God. And the Lord established many sacred rites in the Church, so that believers through them might be taught, receive grace, and be perfected.
We will speak separately about every institution established in the Church for the perfection of believers and show that they all have a Divine foundation and that the sectarian attacks on them are unfounded.
No comments:
Post a Comment