"If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me," says the Lord. "If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor." Every Christian, through the oaths given at holy baptism, takes upon himself the responsibility of being a slave and servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every Christian absolutely must follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Having called Himself the shepherd of the sheep, the Lord said that "the sheep hear his voice, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." The voice of Christ is His teaching; the voice of Christ is the Gospel; following after Christ's earthly wanderings means completely following His commandments.
In order to follow Christ one must know His voice.
Study the Gospels, and through your life you will be able to emulate Christ. Whoever is born in the flesh and receives regenernation in holy baptism, and then preserves the purity he has received in baptism with the help of a life according to the Gospels, will be saved. He will go in to a God-pleasing life on earth through a spiritual rebirth and he will go out from this world in a blessed death, and in eternity he will find an eternal, expansive, sweet, spiritual pasture.
If anyone serves me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.
"If anyone serves Me, him will My Father honor." The one who follows Christ will share in His state. "Whoever confesses" with his mouth, heart, and deeds "that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God." "If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor, to him who overcomes, the world of sin, who follows Me in this earthly life, in the life eternal, "I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father on His throne."
Rejection of the world must come before following Christ.
The latter has no place in the soul if the former has not yet been accomplished.
Snow can never emit flame.
Water can never issue fire.
A thorn bush can never produce a fig.
Just so, your heart can never be free
from oppressive thoughts, words, and actions
until it has purified itself internally.
Be eager to walk this path.
Constantly say the prayer
"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."
Be humble.
Set your soul in quietness.
- Archimandrite Hesychios of Sinai 6th-7th c.
Glory to Thee our God.
+ Glory to Thee for All Things! +
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