The Ardor of Zeal for God: An Inseparable Characteristic of Christian Life

Recall the conversation I gave you before. There we saw that the believer must come forth from the font of baptism as a zealot for pleasing God alone, with readiness to sacrifice all for this. This ardor of zeal for God, joined with love and self-denial, constitutes such an inseparable characteristic of Christian life that he who possesses it lives; he who lacks it is either dead or sleeps, numb. This is the seed of life and, at the same time, the vital force. It is the fruit of the union of grace with freedom. A man wholly entrusts himself to God’s guidance; grace, coming to him, receives him, fills him, unites with him, and from this hidden treasury of life there emerges a man of “«renewal»” (1 Pet. 2:9), a “«zealot for good works»” (Tit. 2:14), chosen to be “«holy and blameless»” before God “«in love»” (Eph. 1:4).

When adults are baptized, they indeed become such immediately after baptism, for they themselves then present all the necessary dispositions of heart for union with grace. As for those baptized in infancy, divine providence in our salvation was pleased to establish such an order: all that pertains to implanting in us the beginning of Christian life depends on God’s grace and is given at once, and the renewal is accomplished by grace; what depends on our freedom is deferred until the age of reason, until the first confession and communion, when man consciously and willingly entrusts himself to grace, and then the renewal that was accomplished before, as if independently of him, by grace alone, is appropriated to his person and begins to be accomplished jointly with grace and freedom. Then he too appears strengthened by God’s grace as a zealot for pleasing God alone in Christian fashion, with complete self-denial.

Everyone knows that until this crucial moment in life, almost everything depends on parents and sponsors, and afterward on them and on our freedom; and further on those many various relationships in life into which the inscrutable mixture of circumstances places each person. From the influences upon our consciousness and freedom of all these forces, and from how we use them, it comes about that for some everything is light, for others everything is darkness, for still others neither light nor darkness… By this I mean that some, after a beautiful childhood and youth, coming to consciousness, love Christianity with a strong love and zealously pursue it unwavering, ascending from strength to strength and striving to reach “«the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ»” (Eph. 4:13); others turn from the Lord into the way of passions, into bondage to the spirit of the world and its prince, and live in forgetfulness of God and in godless ways; still others—one does not know to whom they belong—not quite to Christ, not quite to the world; outwardly they participate in all the institutions of Christian life, yet in their thoughts and heart they are drawn elsewhere, and place their comfort, pleasure, and happiness in other things. These are Christians without the Spirit of Christ! They do not care about the Lord, but about one thing alone—how to live peacefully and comfortably on earth, amid all the institutions to which they happen to be set by circumstance, without appearing foreign to Christian order and without declaring themselves to be avowed opponents of Christ and Christianity.

Thus, if we look back and wish honestly to determine what we are in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom exclusively we undertook to serve in holy baptism, some will turn out to be zealous lovers of the Lord and of Christian life, others devoted to the world and the passions—enemies of Christ; still others—outward Christians with worldly hearts.

To which of these shall I now address my words?

The first do not need words. We can only, following them, glorify the Lord and bless them… Blessed are you who have heeded the Lord’s call!.. You “«walk in the light of His” face “and rejoice in His name»” all the day (Ps. 88:16-17), crying: “«my heart has failed” in You, O God, “God of my heart»” and my God! (Ps. 72:26)

To the second, what words can reach them, when they are not here and never come?.. They have completely turned away into the destructive path. We can only grieve for them and pray.

Therefore, my words are to you—outward Christians, without the Spirit of Christ, without a heart wholly devoted to the Lord, without zeal for pleasing Him alone!.. Or not only to you, but to us together, for I am the first among you.

What shall we say to ourselves? Ah, brothers, let us force ourselves to rise to a feeling of danger for ourselves and our eternal destiny… Consider what all the true lovers of God say of us—those still here on earth and those already in heaven. What else could they say but the following: «Here are people who seem to be of us, but are not ours.» A simple statement it seems, but what a terrible word! For if we are not theirs, then they are not ours, and nothing of theirs is ours. Thus Christ is not ours, nor are all His promises ours, nor is Paradise ours, nor eternal blessedness. And if this is not ours, you yourselves know what must be ours?! See what a calamity! Meanwhile, look around you—we have almost everything Christian: Christian institutions, Christian ideas, Christian speech, many Christian rules and deeds!.. What is lacking?.. What is lacking is the Christian heart. It is not turned toward Him… its good is not in God, but in itself and in the world, and its paradise is not in heaven, but on earth. What is lacking is this firm, as death, zeal for pleasing God and for salvation. We seem to have fallen asleep and gone numb… and we move as the current of life carries us. Let us awaken this very zeal in ourselves, for who else will do it?! We ourselves have become bound to the world, and we ourselves must tear ourselves from it.

Let us approach our cold, negligent, and careless heart and begin to persuade it kindly to come to its senses at last, to cast off the bonds of the passions and the world that it has willingly placed upon itself, and to turn toward the Lord. Let us speak to our soul thus: «You were created in the image and likeness of God. The infinite God so ordained you that He might shine in you with His perfections, as the sun shines in a tiny drop of water, and be visible in you—both to you and to all who see you, earthly and heavenly. Yet you have turned away from God and have turned toward the world, have received its vile form, and thereby have come to bear the bestial likeness of the prince of this age. Remember your first nobility, great and incomparable, regret your present deformity, and turn toward the Lord, that you may be renewed in the image of your Creator.

God seeks you and, seeking, surrounds you with all His mercies and care: your life is His, and all that is necessary for life is His as well: the light, the air, the food, the clothing, the dwelling, and all that is in you and with you are His. And is this all? For your sake He descended from heaven, suffered, died on the Cross, rose again, ascended to heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, and established the Church on earth, in which He has united all that is necessary for your salvation, and chiefly—by the way of your birth, by the order of your outward life, He has already brought you into this treasury of spiritual goods!.. See how much love! And for all this He asks of you but one thing: your heart. And a drop of water warmed by the sun rises up… Yet you—why do you delay turning to the Lord, warmed on all sides by the warmth of His love?!.

Do you not see that all around you are going toward the Lord—the poor, the lowly, the unlearned. Why do you stand still, allowing all to go before you into the Kingdom?! Is it as if you were worse than others? Are you hindered by something?! Are you deprived of something that is given to all?! Why do you stand still?! Stir yourself, hasten, while the door is still open, which still receives all who turn now.

Why do you stand still? Turn to the Lord and begin to serve Him earnestly… Time passes… the powers weaken, grow coarse, and approach immobility in their perverted direction. Meanwhile, now, tomorrow—death. See, lest you remain in this hardened coldness toward the Lord. Remember the terrible end, when God will finally turn away from those who do not turn to Him and will reject those who reject Him—and be moved by fear to turn toward the Lord.

Seek the Lord! God or the world… there is no middle ground. Or are you sleeping so carelessly that you see nothing?! There is everything; here is nothing; there is truth, here is phantom; there is peace, here are futile cares; there is contentment, here is ceaseless yearning; there is joy and gladness, here only sorrow and grief of heart. All this you know, have experienced, and yet you remain in the same vain preoccupations of mind and heart… You wish to establish paradise on earth… the eighth thousand years have passed since the world-lovers have exhausted themselves in the effort to establish paradise on earth… And not only is there no success, but on the contrary—everything moves toward the worse… you too will not succeed, but only exhaust yourself, chasing the phantom good of the world, like children chasing a fleeting rainbow.»

With such and similar words let us persuade our soul to love the Lord wholly and turn toward Him, having finally developed a decisive zeal for our salvation. May not the same thing happen to us that happens to air balloons… Filled with gas, the finest element, with what speed they soar upward! Let us also fill our soul with heavenly truths and convictions. They will penetrate into the heart, will draw forth our desires, and there our whole being will be drawn toward heaven and all things heavenly.

Nevertheless, what soul does not know all this? All of us know that we must belong exclusively to the Lord in heart and turn all our cares to pleasing Him alone—the small and the great. But when the time comes to move to action—to detach ourselves from all—we begin to offer various excuses to remain in our attachments… «How can we!» they say, «This high life belongs only to the chosen ones… We at least somehow… Whoever is chosen is also especially called… Look at the Apostle Paul… and others like him, visibly called.» To this I say: but did not these chosen ones themselves go in response to the Lord’s call? Did grace perhaps drag them along by force? They heard the word, obeyed, and turned toward the Lord… Let there be, however, some special chosen ones… and for them all is special… But there is also a common path for all. Let us walk by this common path…

In general, all of us are chosen. Once the word of truth has touched our ear, it means we are chosen… The Lord calls us, and we are accountable if we do not follow Him. See how others turned… One heard: “«do not store up treasures on earth»” (Matt. 6:19) and gave up all… Another read: “«in vain does man toil and gather, knowing not for whom»” (Ps. 38:7), abandoned vanity, and entered upon the firm path of pleasing God. A third looked upon a crucifix with the inscription: «See what I have done for you; what are you doing for Me?..» and with all his heart gave himself to the Lord… Is this something extraordinary?! Why, every day we hear and read a thousand similar truths… Can we after this consider ourselves uncalled?.. No, brothers, the matter is not with the calling, but with us.

How did these who turned around come to turn? They realized that there is no life but in the Lord, and they changed their unseemly life. Thus it should be for all. The inward change or reversal depends on our conscientiousness in relation to the truth we have perceived. And this conscientiousness always depends on us… let us apply it and we shall conquer ourselves… Into the inner sanctuary of the heart no one else will enter… There man decides all things with his conscience and his awareness… Let us stand before God in our hearts and, vividly recalling all that God desires and realizing the inevitability and urgency of this for our salvation, let us lay this covenant in our heart: «From now on I will belong entirely to the Lord in heart and will serve Him alone with all my strength.» And our election will be accomplished, for election is the union of our decision with God’s calling.

“«The Lord is near»” (Phil. 4:5). He comes to all and knocks at the heart—will anyone not open?! If the heart is a closed vessel, who is to blame?! The blame for all is our conscientiousness toward the truth we have learned. If this did not exist, all would be forever turned toward the Lord. And does much require us?! After all, we do not completely reject the Lord. Only pleasing Him does not stand first with us… it is not our chief work, but merely an appendage. Our work is pleasing ourselves, pleasing people and worldly customs. Put pleasing the Lord first and rebuild all else according to the demands of this single goal—and your inward disposition will change… Everything will remain the same… only the heart will become new. That is all! Is this much?!«

Much more would I like to say to you on the same subject, but I see that I have wearied you. The rest your souls will say to yourselves. For who but we ourselves can help the Lord take possession of our hearts?.. Oh, if only we would submit to Him and give Him our hearts, and face to face behold Him in ourselves, and all revolve in His light around Him, as all the heavenly bodies revolve around the sun, turned toward it and illuminated by it, composing their own orderly choir! Amen.