The worker of human righteousness is filled with conceit, high-mindedness, and self-deception; he preaches and trumpets about himself and his deeds, paying no attention to the Lord’s prohibition: Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven…appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly (Matt. 6:1–18). He repays with hatred and vengeance those who dare to open their mouths with the most well-founded and well-intentioned contradiction of his righteousness; he considers himself worthy—unquestionably worthy—of earthly and heavenly rewards.
In contrast, the worker of the Gospel commandments is always immersed in humility. Comparing his fulfillment of them with the loftiness and purity of the all-holy commandments, he constantly recognizes this fulfillment as exceedingly insufficient and unworthy of God; he sees himself as deserving of temporal and eternal punishments for his sins, for his unsevered communion with satan, for the fall common to all men, for his own remaining in the fall, and finally for his own insufficient and often perverse fulfillment of the commandments.
If some good thought comes to you, stop—do not rush to fulfill it rashly or thoughtlessly. If you feel some good inclination in your heart, stop—do not dare to be carried away by it. Check it against the Gospel. Examine whether your good thought and your good heart’s inclination agree with the all-holy teaching of the Lord. You will soon see that there is no agreement whatsoever between Gospel good and the good of fallen human nature. The good of fallen nature is mixed with evil, just as tasty and wholesome food becomes poisoned when mixed with poison. Beware of doing the good of fallen nature! By doing this good you will develop your fallen state, you will develop conceit and pride, and you will attain the closest likeness to the demons. On the contrary, by doing Gospel good as a true disciple of the God-Man, you will become like the God-Man.
On Self-Knowledge
The good of fallen nature is mixed with evil.
To prefer a good intention is the work of one who desires; but to complete the choice of a good intention is the work of God. For this man needs God’s help. Let us therefore act in such a way that frequent prayers follow every good desire that appears in us, asking not only for help but also to show whether this desire is pleasing to the will of God or not. For not every good desire enters the heart from God, but only that which is profitable. Sometimes a man desires what is good, but God does not help him, because sometimes this desire comes from the devil—not for our profit but for our harm, or because the desired deed is beyond our measure, since we have not yet attained the corresponding way of life.
Nothing is easier than deceiving oneself and, puffed up with empty glory, considering oneself something when one is nothing.
Strive to know thyself, and then thou shalt know much.
You wish to know how much better you have become? Test yourself—how much worse you feel yourself to be. The clearer your vision, the more clearly you will see the glory of God and your own sinfulness.
The more inattentive anyone is to himself, the more he considers himself pleasing to God. But whoever strives to cleanse himself from the passions and disorderly actions is ashamed to lift up his eyes to Heaven toward God, for he sees that he stands very far from Him.
—Venerable Abba Isaiah
Gospel Good and Human Good
People who do not understand the spiritual foundations of what is happening in the world judge human actions very superficially—they divide man’s activity into openly sinful and evil on the one hand, and good and praiseworthy on the other—solely according to its most external manifestation. They try to draw an approximate boundary between the two, using the most vague and unstable measures of good and evil drawn from the laws of the world. Yet the world in itself does not possess that truth which would reveal to it the true worth of things. Only one law gives a clear definition of what is sin, what is good, and what is what—and that is the Gospel law. The laws of this world sometimes attempt in certain points to resemble Christian laws, but only outwardly; in reality everything there is different. After his fall, man, though entirely enslaved to sin and become deformed, sick, and embittered, nevertheless retained some remnants of the natural good implanted in him by the Creator at his creation. These remnants, however, no longer possess purity and holiness but are mixed with the poison of sin. On these wretched remnants man began to build his teachings about the good and the moral, about love and justice. But such a “righteousness” defiled by impurity cannot teach man true good, cannot enliven and heal the soul; rather, it leads it into great delusion.
In general it is incorrect to consider the salvation of the soul and the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven as directly dependent on our good deeds. God has mercy on man and saves him not for his good deeds, but for his believing, contrite, and humbled heart. Of course, this faith cannot and must not be without works; it will necessarily be embodied in concrete deeds, and these deeds will unfailingly be the most good and holy, for the Lord Himself teaches the believer these deeds.
Therefore it is wrong to preach abstract good to people, to teach them to love their neighbor, to be merciful and kind, without at the same time telling them that they cannot do this correctly, holily, and in a God-pleasing manner without the teaching of the Gospel, without the Church, without the grace of the Holy Spirit which they can receive only in the church through the holy Sacraments. If this is not said, people will think that they can, if they wish, perfectly solve their problems by themselves—without the Church, without the Sacraments, without the grace of the Holy Spirit, without Christ.
In the world, good deeds are often performed, but evil deeds still more often. And the sins of the world are far more refined and varied than its good deeds. These sins touch so closely upon that good that there seems to be no contradiction between them. One and the same person who is praised by all for his good deeds immediately commits a multitude of vile deeds to which no one pays attention. A hero of the world performs some astonishing act of self-sacrifice, yet before and after it he does something most base and low. Such are the virtues of this world: here love and hatred stand side by side. Here are self-sacrifice, heroism, and almsgiving, and right beside them—egoism, self-love, and haughtiness.
In reality both the one and the other are founded upon pernicious passions. The good there seems to exist only in order to set off and give greater sweetness to sin, to sharpen its taste. This good itself draws its roots from polluted water; secret proud and vainglorious thoughts immediately choke every sincere and somewhat elevated aspiration of the soul. In every deed it is important to look into the depths of the heart, into the secret recesses of our hidden thoughts. Every deed, before we decide upon it, is weighed and evaluated by our inner powers; there something like a secret inner council takes place—the heart speaks its “for” and “against,” the mind speaks its own, the feelings, the flesh, our passions, attachments, and weaknesses—all try to insert their word here. And if at this council a just judgment is rendered and the matter is decided according to Christ’s laws, then the deed will be accomplished unto the salvation of the soul. But if cunning is allowed in favor of some passion, with the secret thought of feeding that passion, then the deed performed, however outwardly beautiful it may appear, will bring the soul more harm than benefit. And any small and barely noticeable action or step is always accompanied within us by this inner dedication to one’s name and is performed for the sake of the earthly or the heavenly, the divine or the human. And often this very dedication has greater significance than the deed performed outwardly; in it lies the chief price of what is done before God.
Archimandrite Lazarus
From: Readings For Every Day of Great Lent, Ed. N. Shaposhnikova (Moscow: Danilov Monastery, 2025).
