Therefore, everyone must watch themselves – how they are treated, saved (allowing God to heal themselves): whether they are becoming more humble, grateful, merciful?! All actions of a person should be directed not to changing the world (everything is going well there – the process of healing-salvation under the guidance of the chief Doctor God-Love is going divinely, most appropriately), but to changing oneself! (And do not forget: we have one and only savior – Jesus Christ; as soon as we start to save ourselves: strive, do “good” deeds, make various sacrifices, hoping thus to earn, deserve salvation, that is, to save ourselves, we become antichrists (instead of the savior, because we ourselves are saviors, and we no longer need Jesus; we already rely not on Jesus (in the poverty of spirit entrusting ourselves to Him, the Only Savior), but on ourselves, on our strength, on our good deeds, ascetic feats, various sacrifices… we become Pharisees, hypocrites, godless “righteous,” who constantly crucify Christ! As soon as we start saving ourselves (being saved by our own strength: good deeds) or saving others, – we become antichrists! Someone will say: you have completely confused me – should I do good deeds or not, strive or not, sacrifice or not…?
Salvation is received (accepted) not by deeds or feats, but only by faith in Jesus Christ! (And all labors, feats, good deeds are needed to believe in Jesus Christ, because only the humble, poor in spirit can believe. – And what: when you believe, you don’t need to do anything – neither strive, nor keep God’s commandments?! It is then, when you believe, that you begin to truly strive, work, do good – and the value (essence) of all this (all these labors-feats) is not earning salvation, but gratitude for the Gift, the Grace of Salvation and mastering-assimilating It!). Someone of the ancients said: that faith without works is dead! And another Man said: we are saved only by faith, and not by works of the law, good deeds! There is no contradiction here – these two Spirit-bearers are talking about the same thing: about faith in Jesus Christ, by which we accept salvation, the Kingdom of God! Not about deeds James is talking about when he says that faith without deeds is dead, but emphasizes precisely on faith, that it is not as it should be, that is, not saving. And it is very easy to prove that it is about faith (in Jesus) here. Can there be good deeds without faith in Jesus Christ? The answer is obvious – as much as you want (everyone considers themselves good (at least knows that there are worse than them), that they are now doing or have ever done good, well at least once in their life they have done good…). Let’s take for example the gospel Pharisees, “benefactors,” to whom the Lord gave a wonderful characteristic (Satanists (your father the devil), snakes, vipers, hypocrites, whitewashed tombs full of impurity) – see, for example, Matthew 23, John 7. But faith without good deeds is unthinkable: faith in Jesus Christ always acts by Love. Therefore, the main question: how to believe in Jesus Christ? We talked a lot about this and, God willing, we will talk more!).
When I do good to others (by the commandment: love your neighbor as yourself – do to your neighbor what you want for yourself), I do good to myself; when I do evil to others – I only do evil to myself (because to others my evil (my evil actions-energies) reaches as God’s love, the Lord transforms everything, distributes everything to Good, to Appropriateness!), because I increase the torments of hell in myself. That (various evil) that comes out of the heart (spirit, I, mind, hypostasis-consciousness) defiles a person, not that (any action-energy) that comes to them from outside (Matthew 15); and good (love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, mercy…) – humbles (brings closer to the Goal, to God, to the acquisition of the likeness of God).
Love, be merciful, forgive… – do not worry, you will not ruin God’s plans (doing good to everyone, showing mercy to everyone) and will not harm anyone with good (e.g., forgiving enemies, criminals… from the point of view of this age) (if someone needs to bear the punishment (consequences of their sins-transgressions) or atone for sins-crimes, – the Merciful Lord will arrange everything, and you show mercy, forgive, pity this person (enemy, criminal))! (Do not forget: there is no virtue without discernment; Love is always seeing, knowing, discerning, merciful, wise – there is no good without discernment!). Because when you do evil – you are a fighter against God. And when you do deeds of mercy (love) – you are with God (the Merciful): the Lord will correct, fix your “merciful” mistakes for everyone’s good(!), and you will become more humble, more grateful, more merciful! And when a person does evil – they become more evil, more proud, more hellish, though the Lord uses all those evil deeds (wills-energies) for everyone’s good. Therefore, everything you do – you do for yourself. You do good (by word, deed, thought) – you do good to yourself! You do evil (by word, deed, thought, desire) – you do evil to yourself! Therefore, he who walks in the light of Truth sees everything in a different light and perspective than the sons of this age, he no longer chooses between evil (greater, lesser) – he shows mercy, therefore sees good in everything (God’s Providence), therefore “chooses” always (between good and good) the greatest good! Therefore, we advise “Christians” to change the lighting (“light” of the darkness of paganism, heresy, delusion… to be replaced by the light of Truth, the Holy Spirit). He who has eyes to hear, let him understand!