I would only add the following consideration to the decisive words of the Apostle and Evangelist John.  Having estranged themselves in their minds from the Lord, these unbelievers grasp at acts of charity whose source and support are precisely love.  They act in this way only to be founded on something without the assurance that they have found a solid basis.  If only they had a clear understanding of how it is indeed possible for man to act in a fruitful way, they would never remain fixed on their teaching.  The essence of the matter is – that we are not in the proper state.  Therefore we cannot act in the right way.  In order for us to act in the correct way we must enter into the right state.  By our own powers we are not capable of doing this.  The Lord, having come to the earth, lifted up man to the right state.   He did not lead man into this state for His own sake but rather that man would accept from Him renewed humanness and thus gain the possibility of acting properly.  We obtain this state through Holy Baptism, for those who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  From the time of Baptism we become one with the Lord and begin to live His life and act by His power.  Those who would claim love or the right action (for love is the fullness of the law) should first accept all the premises of Christianity in order to be able to walk rightly and deny their own falseness (lie).  This is impossible without faith, for faith is the root of Christianity and beginning of everything.  The Lord Himself says this: Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except ye abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.  If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (Jn 15:4-6).

 

When someone begins to expound to you about love or fruitful action independent of true belief, tell him: Wait, first believe correctly.  By faith acquire all the salvific precepts of Christianity.  Through them be united with the Lord, make your life and strength depend on Him like you would on an injection for your health and then you will begin to act in a fruitful way.  It is a fact that the witness to a righteous life is fruitful activity in love, but, in order to attain it and to remain in it, one must accept all of God’s Truth with faith and pass through all of God’s sanctifying actions [on one’s self].  Only under these conditions, i.e., by abiding in True Love, may we grow up into Him in all things, Who is the head, even Christ (Eph. 4:15).  We could summarize thus: he who does not have the right Faith cannot enter into the proper state, and he who does not enter into the right state cannot properly act.  Now do you see how one cannot say: “Believe as you wish, only love”?

 

Faith is not only the image of the knowledge of God and of our relationship to Him; it also includes all the salvific institutions [not just the Church as establishment but all that is contained within the Church for salvation] given by God. These salvific institutions maintain active faith.  Our so-called wise men might not actually be opposed to Christian teaching, but, more than anything else, they are repulsed by Christian institutions.  Since these institutions are nothing more than faith in reality and in action, then their main sin is that they do not want to act in the spirit of the Faith.  One is only amazed at how these people so persistently expound about deeds and labours but remove themselves from activity in the realm of holy Faith.  There is something amiss here.  Surely they are acquainted with the laws of logical thought.  There is such duplicity here that one must assume that they are not in fact doers, but are acted upon – they are the tools of a foreign spirit, and such a spirit that is itself foreign to Truth.

 

Brethren, having understood this, let us guard ourselves from the evil reasoning of this world.  Only those who have never tasted the Truth can waver in it.  Let us fulfill with humility and in the spirit of truth all that our holy Faith demands.  Then we will have, and carry within, a witness which will bring to naught all false arguments from without.  May the Lord illumine us by His Truth.  Amen.

 

MY HOPE is the Father, my refuge the Son,

my shelter the Holy Spirit.

O Holy Trinity, glory be to Thee.