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3. Foundations of the Christian morality.

The Christian morality.

What is the essence of morality or its principal beginning? The essence of morality should combine within itself those aspects, which can be found in it today. And what are found in it are freedom and the law, which should be combined in morality. Those moralists, who present the law or freedom on a unilateral basis, preach the false element of morality. We shall start by reviewing this false element.

Those who promote freedom or fluctuating feeling as the principal matter, are promoting “eudemonism” or utilitarianism. They apply happiness as the main beginning of morality in the ordinary sense of the word. According to this theory, a person’s activity should be directed towards his prosperity, happiness. This type of beginning is often expressed in philosophical, and in general, natural morality. However, sometimes it is also encountered in the theological morality.

However, quite often a Christian is obliged to prefer sad moments in his life to those of gaiety abundance. Sometimes, we involuntarily acknowledge an unfortunate Christian as being more fortunate than a privileged one. According to the Holy Scripture, it is crucial for us to walk the narrow path and pass through narrow gates (Mat. 7:13-14). It is essential to deny ourselves and take up our cross (Mat. 16:24). Moreover, that, what promised the eternal joy should not impel us towards morality, i.e. it should not be said that we must act in accordance with God’s will, mainly because of receiving eternal rewards. This inclination would be impure, self-serving, egoistical and endemonistical.

Other moralists support a unilateral point of view on the law or God’s will, in order to avoid moral corruption. The main proponent of this thought appears philosopher Kant. According to his teachings, the essence of morality is comprised exclusively in the form of general legislature, and not in the matter or content. His formalism traverses into despotism, because the law does not indicate any basis for its directives and completely neglects a person’s voluntary agreement with the law. Sie volo, sie jubeo — this is the formula for the moral law. Similar ideas are articulated in theological morality. This was sharply expressed by Duns Scott and his followers. They state: “God does not want goodness because it is goodness by itself, but the opposite — it is good, because God wants it. And if God gave goodness the name that is opposite to what is called goodness, then we would have been forced to acknowledge it as goodness. Here apparently, God’s will is presented as an unthinking wanton act that is applied forcibly on the man.

Even having the correct view on the Divine will, one should not be limited only with God’s legislative will. The question is: what composes God’s will, and on what grounds does it dictate one thing as being good, while rejecting and forbidding another as evil? Besides, for the basis of morality it is necessary that the objective will of God would be accepted by the subjective will of the man, and there would be the readiness of the man for the fulfillment of the will of God, so that it could become the force, attracting the man. True morality is possible only in the form of freedom, it should come out of the good treasure of the heart (Math.12-35:36).

Some theologians point at “perfection” as at the essence of morality. In the Holy Scripture it is said: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Math.5:48). But there arises the question: of what does perfection consist? In what is “the bond of perfectness,” on the expression of the Apostle? Obviously, the idea of perfection is a formal idea; but we should be aware of the real content of morality.

More often they recall of the “similarity to God,” as to the element of morality. In the Holy Scripture we are often called to be similar to God. God made the man exactly for that he could become His image. But there comes a question: in what case do we become similar to God? In what is the essence of God’s life, which we must reproduce in our life?

The main moral element.

On the question of a Jewish lawyer, which is the greatest commandment in the law, the Lord Jesus Christ answered: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind… Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Math. 22:36 and f.). And more: This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you (Ин. 15:12). The Apostle as well said that love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom. 13:8-10). The whole law is in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Gal.5:14). Love is also called the royal law (James 2:8).

In order to show how much the man needs love and how much it is typical of his life, it suffices to remember the medium in which appears a newly-born, and any kind of human activity. A child, being born, on the spot is being surrounded with such love, that the Lord compares His love for the mankind with that love of a mother towards a child (Is. 49:15, 66, 13). Paying attention to the human activity, we shall ask: with what, mainly, is provided the success of this activity? With nothing else, but love for one’s business. Whatever we do, first of all it is necessary to have love for the subject of our activity. The same happens in the moral sphere. All the types of moral activity and the Christian virtues come out of love.

What is true moral love? First of all, it is not only an involuntary feeling, led only by the power of imagination; it possesses the will, guided by the mind as well. The depth of the will is the base of true love. Therefore such love can belong to the person, when his feelings are silent and he is left by the power of imagination. What is love about? It is the combination of my personal “I” with the other “I,” and simultaneously, taking of the other “I” into my personal “I’. But this union of the two creatures is not simply merging and deprivation of the personality, as it is according to the doctrine of the Mystics; on the contrary, the necessary condition of true love is in the fact that those loving each other persons would preserve their individuality. That being in love does not lose himself in the loved one, but forgets oneself in him. In this is the mystery and height of love and moral life, that the man can reject himself for the sake of the other person, and forget oneself in him, but at the same time preserve his individual conciseness and personal dignity. He can dwell in the other, but still such life would be his personal life, too. Consequently, in love get combined self-dedication and self-assertion.

It is obvious that love, which requires the confluence of my own “I” with the other “I” is impossible without self-sacrifice, without self-denial, very frequently suggested to us by the Holy Scripture (Math. 16:24). I set others as a goal, and I convert myself into the means of achieving this goal. But sacrificing oneself that who loves finds himself in the other, enriched and elevated by the general and more complete life. He follows the biblical direction: It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). He knows that of all goods, which the man possesses and what can be given to the other, the best gift there is himself, his personality (Rom.13:8). On him is fulfilled the Evangelical promise: he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it (Matf.10:39). The dear one, in his turn, renounces himself and sacrifices himself; he wants to complete himself, living with the one who loves him. Generally, love requires reciprocity and therefore it has a reward in itself. It cannot be said that love is based on reciprocity; the heart can strongly love, without obtaining equal reciprocity; but by the purpose such love has an expectation to reach mutual love, it has hope, that it would be understood and answered with love as well. There where this goal is not achieved and hope does not reach its expectations, there love cannot remain living and active. But one of the qualities of moral love is the fact that it suffereth long, according to the expression of the apostle, hopeth all things (1 Cor. 13:4,7). There is possible suffering love. Consequently, not by chance and not unnaturally the Gospel commands us to love enemies (Math.5:44; Luke 6:35). Loving enemies, we hope to overcome evil with good (Rome 12:21) and to make those hating us loving, in other words, to reach the purpose of love: reciprocity, accordion, peace.

In what is the basis of love, and where is its source? If we love each other, then the basis of our love consists of the affinity of human nature, and even with the individual differences there is the essential connection between us, hidden in the depths of the mankind. In the view of this connection all people compose one body, according to the expression of Ap. Paul, or “one city,” according to the expression of Zenon. This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh (Gen. 2:23): by these words Adam expressed his enthusiasm with the appearance of Eva and his love for her, and as to the basis of his love, he indicates the fact that in her he sees the same nature, which he bears in himself. The same thought express the words of the writer of Genesis: for Adam there was not found an help meet for him (2:20). Consequently, the similarity composes the condition of close connection or love between the creatures.

But the general human nature, which lies at the basis of their faces and which impels to the mutual love, indicates the more general nature, universal, or divine, which lies at the basis of the first. As the man is the similarity of another person, from whom he was born, so all humanity in totality is the similarity of its Creator, and in the view of this similarity it is impelled to love for the Creator. It is directly said in the Holy Scripture that we are of Godly kind (Acts 17:20). It is also said: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him (Gen. 1:27). And more: in him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). So, consequently, the source of love is God. In His essence, He is eternal love: “God is love,” — says Ap. John (4:8,16). After creating the world with love, as His similarity, by this God bound the man to love Him as his prototype. The love of God is the first love, while our love is the second love. Therefore the apostle says: We love him, because he first loved us (1 John, 4:19). His love for the world God expressed in sending of His Son for the atonement of the mankind. God loved the world so, that he gave His begotten Son (John 3:16). In this action of God was most clearly expressed the essential element of love — self-sacrifice. This element must characterize our love for God. We must deny and forget ourselves, in order to live with God and in God.

Although to forget oneself does not mean to lose oneself in God. As in love of God for us there is not only self-sacrifice, but also self-assertion, i.e. God does not lose Himself in the world, but saves the world and glorifies Himself, the same happens in love of the man for God: it consists not only of self-sacrifice, but also of self-preservation, as the consequence of the personal individuality. If before the face of God the man preserves his individuality, and meanwhile in love for God he got distracted from his limited individual existence and moved himself into the domain of the limitless existence of God, then hence by itself follows that his life obtains such abundant content and is filled by such contentment, which can never become the lot of an egoist, who is reserved in his own scant individuality. God is the highest, last source of love and inexhaustible source of life: the man only has to derive from this abundant source, and this is possible only in such a case, when he loves God. Since he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). Love is something divine in the man; it is, so to say, the most human from that in the man, and the most divine of that what is in God.

Love for God forces us to love neighbors as the similarity of God, and together to learn to love God as a mean, and to prove one’s love for God. Who says: If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also (1 John 4:20-21). In the neighbor we love God, and in God we love the neighbor. The idea of true humanity is hidden here. And humanity, i.e., the kingdom of neighbors, is wider and more abundant than a single person, so, moving oneself, by the means of love, into the mankind and living its life, a single person enriches and pleases his personal life. But an egoist, without coming out of himself, again remains in his narrow and poor medium. Love does not produce leveling or indifference in the medium of the members of society; it is the element, which organizes society, joining all the members into one great and excellent body, on the words of Ap. Paul (Eph. 4:15). It does not destroy those assumed by God differences among the medium of human society and does not deny the authority and respect among the medium of society; it indicates everyone’s own place in the historical and social order; but at the same time it calls all the members of society to the mutual service and help, it requires that the similar to God personality would be respected and honored in each member of society.