“It is only through its divine-human power that Christianity is the "salt" of the earth, a salt which preserves humanity from decomposing into sin and evil. If, however, Christianity becomes decomposed into various humanistic elements, then it becomes lifeless, it becomes a "saltless" salt, which, according to the ever-true word of the Savior, "is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men" (Matth. 5:13).”
St. Justin (Popovich)
It explains well why there is only one true Church, the one founded by Christ and Apostles, the one bothered to keep the teaching safe without any giving in to sinful world tendencies.
It is not enough for the Church to have sincere people in it. This is not a criteria of true Christian teaching. There are totally sincere people who commit awful crimes, sometimes even with Christ’s name on the lips. “ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”Mt.7,27
St. Justin (Popovich)
It explains well why there is only one true Church, the one founded by Christ and Apostles, the one bothered to keep the teaching safe without any giving in to sinful world tendencies.
It is not enough for the Church to have sincere people in it. This is not a criteria of true Christian teaching. There are totally sincere people who commit awful crimes, sometimes even with Christ’s name on the lips. “ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”Mt.7,27
“Most importantly, preserve peace with your close ones, insofar as this depends on you. Consider that all sorts of sick people have gathered there in a group; this is so. For this reason you must relate to everyone as they do in a hospital. They don’t berate people there (i.e., in a hospital) for having an ailing lung or heart or stomach; they don’t say: “O you good-for-nothing blind woman, what’s the matter with you that your eyes are infected?”! So, too, you mustn’t rail at each other about your spiritual illnesses” - Abbot Nikon Vorobiev
This spiritual advice helps to look differently on people around us when we get easily irritated by them and start complaining or fighting with them.
This spiritual advice helps to look differently on people around us when we get easily irritated by them and start complaining or fighting with them.
“It is [the Christians] philanthropy towards strangers, the care they take of the graves of the dead, and the affected sanctity with which they conduct their lives that have done most to spread their atheism." (Julian the Apostate, Epistle 22, written to Arsacius, pagan high priest of Galatia, 362 AD)
Let us stand accused of the “atheism” of early Christians.
Let us stand accused of the “atheism” of early Christians.