Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
Do not dwell on the frequency of lawlessness and vice. Change frequency, and dwell on the frequency of lawfulness and virtue.
Abandon the frequency of the passions. Embrace the frequency of the virtues.
If you remain on the frequency of the passions you will repeat the cycle of vice. Change frequency to the frequency of virtue, and you will break the cycle of vice.
Rank yourself below all other persons. This is the initial humility. This ranking frees you from pride, judging, and wrath, and brings you joy and comfort.
Secular crimes incur physical jail. Religious crimes which are not repented for and atoned for incur the spiritual jail of Hades.
Freewill means that we can only correct ourselves. We cannot correct others against their will. We can only teach and admonish others but we cannot correct or change them against their freewill.
Be lawful in mind. Be lawful in speech. Be lawful in heart. Be lawful in body. Lawfulness is joy. Unlawfulness is sorrow.
Are you a carnal person, a psychical person, a natural person, or a spiritual person? The life of the carnal person is the life of love of wealth, love of glory, and love of pleasure. The life of the psychical person is love of the body, and love of glory. The life of the natural person is the golden rule, namely, ethical symmetry. The life of the spiritual person is fasting, charity, prayer, humility, and continence.
We must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. (See John 1:33). This baptism is our entry into the Orthodox Christian life.
We must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit to be truly spiritual persons. We must also receive the washing of the Holy Spirit throughout our life, through the sacrament of repentance and confession.
We must repent and confess throughout our life to receive both the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the washing of the Holy Spirit.
Our repentance should be based on the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the major ethical precepts of Orthodox Christianity.
Where is your fault? Is your fault in your mind? Is your fault in your heart? Is your fault in your speech? Is your fault in your body? Identify where your fault is and correct it through repentance, confession, and firm resolution.
Practice the opposite of your vice: fasting instead of overeating, charity instead of overpossessing, humility instead of vanity, truth-speaking instead of lying, continence instead of lust.
Practicing the virtue opposite to your former vice is the sign of your repentance and correction.
You must correct your faults. Remember the sign of the secular church: pride, wrath, non-mercy, envy, and hatred. You must practice the opposite of these: humility, meekness, mercy, rejoicing with others, and love.
All blessing comes from obeying your father and mother. All blessing comes from honoring your father and mother. All blessing comes from comforting your father and mother. All blessing comes from loving your father and mother.
Repentance and forgiveness of sins is the basic message of Orthodox Christianity. (See Luke 24:47).
True repentance is to practice the opposite: Humility instead of pride, charity instead of greed, continence instead of pleasure.
(Ps. 139:8 LXX): “Lord, Lord, the power of my salvation.”
Take full responsibility for your choices. Repent and correct your wrong choices.
Guarding of the mind and heart is the major practice of the Orthodox Christian life.
With the help of God you can correct all your faults. (See Phil. 4:13).
Consider the economy of your thoughts, feelings, words, and works. Remember that you will be judged for this economy.
Consider the economy of your good thoughts, good feelings, good words, and good works. Lord Jesus is the source of this economy. You are just a steward of the good. Consider the economy of your wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, wrong words, and wrong works. The dragon is the source of these wrongs. By your free choice you accepted these wrongs. Take full responsibility for them, repent, confess, and correct yourself.
(Matt. 5:48): “You shall be perfect. (1 Peter 1:16): “You shall be holy.” It is the will of God that we be perfect and holy.
We are not here to judge and condemn our brethren. (See Luke 6:37). We are here to help and love our brethren.
Love does no injustice. (See 1 Cor. 13:6).
All blessing, all progress, all wisdom, comes from obedience to your father and mother and to your elders in Christ.
Renounce food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Live a life of fasting, charity, humility, and continence.
Be neutral to your body, neither loving nor hating it. This way you can practice your spiritual practices, and avoid vanity and pleasure.
Obey your natural father and natural mother. You will then become good, wise, and blessed.
Obey God, and He will grant you what you ask in prayer. (See Gal. 6:7).
Is there anything greater than to be with Lord Jesus and the saints? Lord Jesus and the saints are all humility, all meekness, all mercy, all love. Is there anything more blessed than this communion?
Whatever was your sin you must now practice the opposite. Was your sin pride? You must now practice humility, non-glory, and last place. Was your sin greed? You must now practice charity. Was your sin forbidden pleasure? You must now practice continence.
Be crucified to the passions.
The secular church lives in pride. The Orthodox Christian Church lives in humility. The secular church lives in greed. The Orthodox Christian Church lives in charity. The secular church lives in pleasure. The Orthodox Christian Church lives in continence.
Let us mourn brothers and sisters for our folly. Let us mourn for our pride. Let us mourn for our greed. Let us mourn for our pleasure.
Perfect faith in Lord Jesus and perfect obedience to Lord Jesus give rise to all virtue, all wisdom, and all spiritual gifts.
Are you a temple of Lord Jesus, or are you a temple of false Gods?
We teach others not so much by our words but by our practice. Our virtuous practice teaches others. Our non-virtuous practice also influences others.
Are you free of pride? Are you free of greed? Are you free of pleasure?
A true Orthodox Christian is pure from the vices of pride, greed, and pleasure.
The Lord created us. The Lord cares for us. The Lord helps us. The Lord saves us.
Faith and Obedience! Faith receives grace. Obedience practices the works of grace. Without faith there is no grace. Without obedience grace does no works.
Love all members of the Orthodox Christian Church. Love also all members of the secular church. The love of an Orthodox Christian is towards all.
Beware of pride, greed, and pleasure. These three are the roots of all the passions. Practice the antidotes of humility, charity, and continence.
Are you a person of pride or a person of humility? Are you a person of greed or a person of charity? Are you a person of pleasure or a person of continence?
Be perfectly free of self. Have perfect faith in Lord Jesus. Have perfect obedience to Lord Jesus. (See Gal. 2:20).
The members of the secular church constitute the black nodes. Black nodes from unbelief, pride, and lawlessness. The members of the Orthodox Christian Church constitute the white nodes. The white nodes of faith, humility, and lawfulness.
The sun shines equally on all. Similarly, God loves all equally. Those who turn away from the sun do not partake of its light and warmth. Similarly, those who turn away from God do not partake of His light, grace, goodness, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
Always practice compassion and love towards all. Both to white nodes and to black nodes practice compassion and love.
Be free of pride, greed, and pleasure. Practice humility, charity, and continence.
Beware of the temptations of pride, greed, and pleasure. Guard yourself with humility, patience, charity, and continence.
Practice humility. Practice meekness. Practice mercy. Practice love. These are what constitute a true Orthodox Christian.
Always practice humility, prayer, charity, continence, and love.
Do you want to live a life of foolishness or a life of wisdom? The life of foolishness is pride, greed, and pleasure. The life of wisdom is humility, charity, and continence.
The life of folly is pride, wrath, non-mercy, envy, and hatred. The life of wisdom is humility, meekness, mercy, rejoicing with others, and love.
Contemplate and practice. Turn ideas into reality. Remember that everything is possible for him who believes. (See Mark 9:23).
An Orthodox Christian monastic practices withdrawal, poverty, obedience, and chastity. An Orthodox Christian layperson practices stillness, charity, partial obedience, and partial chastity.
The Messiah is he who brings the Shekinah, the Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus has done this, He has brought the Shekinah, proving that He is the Messiah. (See John 1:33).
Be true to yourself. Be true to your conscience.
Almighty Lord Jesus was the perfect practitioner and teacher of spiritual law. He was the perfect practitioner of humility, meekness, mercy, and love.
Seek to be perfect in humility, perfect in meekness, perfect in mercy, perfect in love.
When we practice independence, we can practice love towards all.
You are the light of the world if you have grace, and practice humility, meekness, mercy, and love. (See Matt. 5:14).
Do not cling to pride, greed, and pleasure. If you do, you will go to the asylum that is prepared for them.
Give thanks both for the good you receive and for the sorrows you encounter. (See 1 Thess. 5:18). Consider the good as the economy of God, and the sorrows as due to your sins.
Be always joyful. (See 1 Thess. 5:16). Have perfect faith in Lord Jesus. Have perfect obedience to Lord Jesus. Have perfect hope in Lord Jesus.
Be independent from every other person and you will be able to keep the precepts of Lord Jesus.
Live the free life of non-wealth, non-glory, and non-pleasure. The life of wealth, glory, and pleasure, does not make one free and happy.
God will help you reach perfection in virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts. Only have perfect faith in Lord Jesus, perfect obedience to Lord Jesus.
Perfection in virtue is born or perfect obedience to your natural father and mother, and perfect obedience to your spiritual father.
By faith you receive grace. By obedience you practice the works of grace.
Humble your opinion. Humble your will. Be neutral towards your body. These three will make you prudent and useful.
Be independent from every other person and your psychology will be sound.
Love of God and neighbor is all that matters. If you have these all else will follow.
If we sin we must repent and confess, or in the precise form out-declare, our sin.
Correct your faults. Bear with the faults of others. (See Rom. 15:1).
How can the Shekinah, the Holy Spirit, come if you only care for wealth, glory, and pleasure?
Ethical teaching is universal and timeless. Orthodox Christian ethical teaching is the following virtues: humility, meekness, mercy, and love.
Have compassion and love for all beings, from humans down to ants. Have care for all beings, a universal concern for the well-being of all beings.
You must practice self-denial in order to love God with your whole heart. Once you love God with your whole heart you will love all beings, from humans down to ants and plants.
Be zealous for virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts. Do not be zealous for wealth, glory, or pleasure.
Pray for those who transgress the Ten Commandments. Pray for those who do not believe in the Trinitarian God, but are atheists, or polytheists, or followers of false Gods and false powers. Pray for those who make idols of their body, or their wealth, or their learning. Pray for those who take the name of God in vain or take oaths. Pray for those who do not keep holy the Lord’s Day and the festivals. Pray for those who dishonor and disobey father and mother. Pray for those who kill humans, animals, or insects without cause. Pray for the wrathful, enmitous, and rancorous. Pray for adulterers, fornicators, and other sexually unethical persons. Pray for thieves and destroyers of others’ property. Pray for liars and all who think, speak, and practice falsehood. Pray for those who covet the wife, wealth, glory, or comforts of their neighbor. Pray for those who are jealous of the wife, wealth, glory, or comforts of their neighbor. Pray that all may repent of these transgressions and return to the Trinitarian Lord and Creator. Amen.
Purify your heart from the passions. Purify your heart from pride, greed, and pleasure.
God calls us to abandon the life of pride, greed, and pleasure, and to live a life of grace, humility, charity, and continence.
Seek to have a silent mind. Seek to have a silent heart. Seek to have a discerning and silent tongue.
How can the secular church respect and love the saints when it does not live like them? The secular church overeats, overpossesses, has vanity, lies, reviles, mocks, and practices lust. The saints fast, give charity, have humility, truth-speak, bless, encourage, and practice continence.
Beware of the five temptations: pride, vanity, lust, greed, gluttony.
We should have all our confidence in the power of Lord Jesus. It is with the power and grace of Lord Jesus that we practice virtue and increase in knowledge.
Are you a receiver of the gospel bearing fruit a hundred, or a sixty, or a thirty? Are you a neutral to the gospel, held by cowardice or love of possessions, and bearing no fruit? Are you a rejector of the gospel, living a life of pride, greed, and pleasure?
Where you are doesn’t matter. What matters is having faith and obedience.
It is not the place that brings progress. Progress comes from faith and obedience.
The Old Testament taught the natural law. The New Testament teaches the spiritual law. In order to be saved, we must practice the spiritual law.
The receivers of the gospel are the white nodes. The rejectors of the gospel are the first black nodes. The neutrals to the gospel are the second black nodes. (See Matt. 13:24-30)
The rejectors of the gospel live a life of overeating, overpossessing, vanity, and lust. The neutrals to the gospel live a life of overeating, overpossessing, vanity, and lust. The receivers of the gospel live a life of fasting, charity, prayer, humility, and continence.
Choose the gospel life. Choose the life of humility, meekness, mercy, and love.
Choose the life of the commandments. Choose the life in God.
