Virtue as the Foundation of Virtuous Life

In this regard, virtue is defined thus: it is constant, zealous care in accurately keeping God’s law, grounded in faith and animated by love and reverence for God. From this, the following properties of Christian virtue naturally flow: 1) it consists in constant, zealous care in accurately keeping God’s law. “Stand firm, be immovable, abounding in the Lord’s work always,” says the Apostle (1 Cor. 15:58). Therefore, fleeting feelings of piety, which sometimes even the vicious experience, as well as fruitless desire to live in accordance with God’s law and mere external keeping of it, do not yet constitute Christian virtue; 2) the foundation of this virtue is true faith in Jesus Christ, or firm conviction of mind and heart in the truth of His teaching and the necessity of fulfilling it. Whoever does not believe that he is the greatest sinner and deserves eternal punishment for his sins, that he can obtain salvation only through Jesus Christ, Who “died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3), that through the death of the Son of God salvation is truly obtained only by those who, “freed from sin,” live in righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24), “do the will” “of your Father in heaven” (Matt. 7:21)—whoever does not believe this will never be a zealous keeper of God’s law; 3) true virtue grounded in faith is animated by reverent love toward God. Only this love can inspire and sustain in us constant, zealous care in keeping God’s law (Rom. 8:35–39). It is known that we willingly and zealously fulfill the commands of those whom we love and respect. Love alone, as the purest motive, gives our virtue high dignity, or rather, in it consists Christian virtue; for love, according to the Apostle, “is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10) and “the bond of perfection” (Col. 3:14); 4) finally, judging by how zeal itself arises and by the nature of love, self-denial must be a necessary attribute of Christian virtue. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me,” (Lk. 9:23). Self-denial generally means the strong effort of a person to destroy in himself self-love, or false, disordered love of himself, which is incompatible with true love for God and neighbor: “Love does not boast, is not proud, does not act shamefully, does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13:4–5). In particular, it consists in restraining or mortifying the passions that arise from self-love as branches from a root. The chief of these are: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 Jn. 2:16). Since these passions precisely turn a person from virtue toward vice, one who desires to progress in Christian virtue must constantly destroy them in himself, or live amid the struggles of self-denial. And in general, no good work can be performed without self-denial; for as soon as self-love participates in it, the work either becomes impure or loses the goodness proper to it.