On Truth & Love - St. Theophan the Recluse

A reading of St. Theophan the Recluse's (+1894) homily examining the teachings of St. John the Theologian
0:21 St. John is above all an example and teacher of love
1:03 How contemporary "wise men" abuse St. John's teaching
2:01 The true teaching of St. John and the false teaching of “Indifferentism”
2:50 St. John binds together his teaching on love with God
5:03 On love and faith, and how St. John “categorically rejects those who say, ‘Believe as you want.’”
6:43 Test the spirits…is that compatible with “Believe as you want”?
7:28 The whole essence of Christianity
8:28 These excerpts should be enough, but the “Indifferentists” speak as though they have never read St. John the Theologian
9:14 We must enter into the right state to act properly
10:20 We enter into this state through baptism which gives us power to live a holy life
11:29 Make your life depend on Christ like you do an injection for your health
12:24 St. Theophan’s summary of St. John’s message
12:43 Some may not object to Christian teaching, but are repulsed by Christian institutions, which are “faith in reality and in action.”
13:54 “Only those who have never tasted the Truth can waver in it.”
Read the text here in "Orthodox Life", 1996, # 6: orthodoxlifemagazines.blogspo...
Learn more about St. Theophan here: orthochristian.com/113979.html
Other recordings of St. Theophan's teachings from Orthodox Wisdom
--Excerpt from "Creation, Early Man, & Evolution"
• Excerpt from "Creation...
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St. Theophan writes:
In the subject of love St. John is especially well known, and no matter who would begin to muse, about love he would immediately bring to mind St. John as the model of love and turn to him as to a teacher of love.
Now let us examine how contemporary wise men have made use of this teaching. They possess a special kind of vain wisdom called "Indifferentism" by which they reason say: "believe as you like, it makes no difference-just love everyone like brothers, be charitable to them, and have a good influence on them."
What does the will of God consist of? In faith and love: thus the commandment says: "That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another" (1 John 3:23). It does not only command us to love but to believe in the Lord, and in such a way that faith is the source of love. If one were to gather into one all the places where St. John the Evangelist speaks only of love, one could still not confirm his teaching by the false reasoning: only love and believe as you want.
Then there follows the warning: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Herein know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist" (1 John 4:1-3). He who says, "Believe as you want" does not confess Jesus Christ, for if he did confess Christ he would not speak thus. Therefore he cannot be from God. Where then is he from?-truly from the antichrist.
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.... 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.
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"?
One is only amazed at how these people so persistently expound about deeds and labors 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.
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[@mckeojasortho]

How do I love my "enemies"? Only with humiility! Amen, Amen, Amen.

[@user-pn7xc2wy7q]

I listened to many videos over time. I listen to you when I drive, when I cook or clean the house. Your voice is very familiar. Only today I felt the urge to thank you. Thank you. May God bless you, guide you and give you strength every day.

[@OrthodoxWisdom]

Glory to God. May God reward you for your kindness and prayers!

[@brandonashley5872]

I had never heard of St Theophan, But today after liturgy they were selling icons outside the church and I decided I would get whatever Icon appealed to me and go home and learn about that saint, I picked St Theophan and I opened his wikipedia page and saw we have the same birthday

[@JohnAnon-mh5el]

Thank you for this wonderful homily. St. John the Theologian is my Patron Saint. May the Beloved Apostle pray to God for us and inspire us to love one another.

[@AnatolyPotapov]

Years ago, I used to love the writings of the later Tolstoy, whose teaching St Theophan may well have in mind, who promoted a program of what some called Christian anarchism, pacifism and non-violence, and a refusal of military service, saying that the key that unlocked for him what he said (whether honestly or as a rhetorically useful mask) was the true message of Christ, which was the passage: “but I say unto you, resist not evil. If a man strikes you….” And he likewise appealed to St John, and considered that it was impossible to maintain love and have any active support or duty toward any political association that might involve itself in physical fight with other polities, or maintain police, for that matter. I’m also reminded of another KZbinr, whom I argued with over 10 years ago, whose channel name was Kindness Street, which he has since deleted. His program was exactly what St Theophan described, but instead of indifferentism called it apathy-ism or apatheology, I forget. My argument then was that it was an arbitrary stance. (I wanted to know a reality beyond my subjectivity to be the basis for guiding life.) One could just as arbitrarily throw oneself in with sadism, and cruelty seemed closer to what we observe in nature, one life consuming another or getting consumed, with political associations, and education and religion supporting them justified by collective selfishness. To which he replied that this didn’t disturb his position, his will to stand by his stance didn’t need any reality grounding it. As long as his will was such, he and it were self-sufficient. Apatheism withstood this test. This puzzled me, but I didn’t know quite how to object. Now I think the problem with standing on one’s own resoluteness is that one knows one’s merely human spirit is not simply at one’s disposal, so one inwardly knows one is lying to oneself in thinking one can securely ground one’s life on a merely human plan and will. And so in Orthodox prayer we pray “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” This “decision” to rely on nothing but a human plan and what is self-evident to us seems to me to be the essence of the modern turn, starting with Machiavelli and his student Francis Bacon.

[@Saint_nobody]

Amen, brother and thank you for sharing.

[@SeraphimVolker]

Fun fact, in the Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quotes St. Theophan the Recluse and St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite multiple times throughout the first book. I can't find the exact quotes atm but after reading "On the Spiritual Life" by St. Theophan and "On Guarding the Mind and the Heart" by St. Nicodemus, you'll find that Solzhenitsyn too has read these works and makes subtle reference to them both. You could perhaps count Unseen Warfare as a book that is made reference to, but I'm not completely confident in that discernment.

[@SeekAStrak]

🙏

[@boyar3033]

I came to associate this voice (by the person who reads these videos) with understanding the teachings of the church fathers and the word of God.

[@icommitedwarcrimes4879]

This is an AI generated voice, right?

[@olubunmiolumuyiwa]

Nah, it's real.

[@SeraphimVolker]

It was hard for me to get used to at first but the voice will grow on you the more you listen to Orthodox Wisdom.

[@OrthodoxWisdom]

Real voice. I’m trying to keep an authentic human voice, the voice of an Orthodox Christian, to be the means of people hearing the wisdom from Christ’s saints.

[@icommitedwarcrimes4879]

@@OrthodoxWisdom oh! That's interesting. I hear a lot of clips, where some voices are real, others are AI, but are very realistic, and I can't make the difference anymore..

[@thecrow4597]

I never would have confused this for AI! I’ve always thought the reader truly has a gift! I feel peace of soul and warmth in my heart as soon as he starts reading. Fantastic voice