Victors over evil. It is one's personal effort to eradicate evil and to implant good that the essence of Christian struggle or asceticism lies. One must coerce oneself in every way, constrain in oneself to refrain from every type of evil, and compel oneself to every good. This is what attracts the all-powerful grace of God which, conjoined with one's personal effort, makes him victor over evil in his own soul, which is the ultimate purpose of unseen warfare.
Archbishop Averky (Taushev)
Unseen warfare is impossible without one's own efforts. "Water does not flow under a rock lying on the ground," as the wise Russian proverb goes. Thus it also is in the spiritual life - we cannot sit idly and wait for God to do everything for us. God very much desires to help us and truly does help us, but we receive the aid of His grace only when we apply our own efforts, our self-restraint, and self compulsion. In this way, we show the sincerity of our striving to conquer the evil in our soul and to place good therein.
God gave man free-will. He granted him the right to choose freely the path of evil or the path of good, and He does not hinder that freedom. When one is on the path of evil, God tries various ways to bring him to his senses, to make him understand that he has chosen for himself a dangerous path, a path that will lead him to perdition. Still God does not hinder that person's freedom, but he perishes if he pays no heed to the instruction that God sends him in the form of various signs and warnings, misfortunes and troubles.
If one is upon the path of good, God immediately shows His all-powerful, grace-filled support commensurate with the person's sincerity as revealed in his personal efforts.
Man's personal efforts are like a receiver of the grace of God. The greater and more decisive these efforts are, the greater is the grace-filled help from God that they may attract. These efforts in and of themselves are not as significant in unseen warfare as the sincerity of one's good will that is revealed in these efforts. The more forcefully one battles, the more intense the efforts of his good will - the greater is the grace that he receives from God. Incidentally, this clearly demonstrates the significane of good deeds for salvation, and idea that is rejected by Protestants. It is not in and of themselves that good deeds have meaning, nor is it the personal effort of doing good that saves man;
What saves him (man) is the earnestness with which his will is directed towards good. In forcing himself to do good, one shows that his will seeks virtue.
This is what attracts the all-powerful grace of God which, conjoined with one's personal effort, makes him victor over evil in his own soul, whhich is the ultimate purpose of unseen warfare.
Glory to Thee our God.
+ Glory to Thee for All Things +
"Archbishop Averky was one of the last giants of 20th-century Orthodoxy . . . . [He] was an Orthodox scholar in the unbroken tradition of patristic thought which has come down to us from the ancient Fathers to our own days.”
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