Are we falling spiritually, are we sinning? Let us hurry to Him with intimacy, love and trust, not with the fear that He will punish us, but with the confidence that gives us the feeling that we have a friend in Him. When a person progresses spiritually and enters the love of God, then what is his fear? Whatever he does, he does it out of love, and that has a much greater value.
We need to feel Christ as our friend. He is our friend. He Himself assures us of this when He says: “You are my friends” (John 15:14). Let us look at Him as a friend and approach Him as a friend.
Are we falling spiritually, are we sinning? Let us hurry to Him with intimacy, love and trust, not with the fear that He will punish us, but with the confidence that gives us the feeling that we have a friend in Him. Let us say to Him: Lord, I have sinned, I have fallen; forgive me! But at the same time we should feel that He loves us, receives us tenderly and with love and forgives us. May sin not separate us from Christ! When we believe that He loves us and when we try to love Him too, then we will not feel alien to Him and separated from Him even when we sin. We have secured for Him His love: no matter how we govern ourselves, we know that He loves us.
If we really love Christ, then there is no fear that we will lose the feeling of awe towards him. The word of the apostle Paul applies here: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Sorrow or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor present, nor future, nor height , neither depth nor any other creature will be able to separate from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord “(Rom. 8, 35, 38, 39). This is the most sublime, unique relationship of the soul with God, a relationship that he cannot tear, who is not afraid of anything and does not waver in anything.
The Gospel, however, tells us, using symbolic words, that the unrighteous will be found where the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” are (Mt. 8, 12 and 13, 42), because that is when man is far from God. And among the Fathers of the Church, who were ascetics and teachers of spiritual sobriety, there are many who speak of the fear of death and hell. Fear of Hell, Fear of Punishment Trying to avoid sin, one indulges in such thoughts, the consequence of which is the fear of death, hell and the devil.
Everything has its meaning, its time and its appropriate opportunity. The notion of fear is good for the first spiritual steps. It is for beginners, for those in whom the old man still lives. Such a man, a beginner, who is not yet spiritually refined, overcomes the tendency towards evil with the help of fear. We need fear while we are attached to matter and while we are spiritually crawling on the ground. But that is, let’s say, the initial stage, it is a low degree of relationship with the Deity.
It’s as if we’re going to a store, to an exchange of services, so that we don’t deserve heaven or get rid of the torment in hell. If we think a little better, such a relationship contains a certain self-sufficiency, a certain interest. I don’t like that approach. When a person progresses spiritually and enters the love of God, then what is his fear? Whatever he does, he does it out of love, and that has a much greater value than fear. To be good because of the fear of God, and not out of love for Him – there is no value in that.
If we go further, we discover that the Gospel also lets us know that Christ is joy and truth, that Christ is paradise. What does the evangelist John say? “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for in fear there is torment: but he that feareth is not made perfect in love “(1 John 4:18). Working in the fear of God on the way of salvation, we gradually enter into the love of God. Then hell disappears, fear disappears, death We are only interested in the love of God We do everything for that love – as a bridegroom for a bride.
If we want to follow Christ, this life on earth will be our joy with Christ, regardless of the difficulties. In this regard, the apostle Paul says: I rejoice in my sufferings. That is our religion. We should go in that direction. It does not consist so much of formal obligations as of the determination to live with Christ. When you can do that, what else would you like? You got it all. You live with Christ, and Christ lives in you. Everything is then very easy – obedience, calmness, peace of mind.
