Start Cleaning From Inside

About Bishop St. Theophane the Recluse

About "old" and "new" calendar

August 21 (September 3)

2Cor. 2:14-3:3; Mt. 23:23-28

Make clean the inside, then the outside will also be clean [Mt. 23:25]. By and large, the outside behavior in our society (XIX century Russia) is seemly: we are careful not to offend the public opinion and restrain ourselves, and if someone openly yields to sin. that person is viewed as a shameless outcast. Much more common, however, is inner moral corruption with resemblance of an outer order.

In that case, full license is given to evil desires, inasmuch it is possible to hide them from public eye. That’s indeed a “whited sepulchre" [Mt. 23:27]! The inner rot makes the outside unclean just as well. So, to cleanse yourself all throughout, you have to start from inside: “If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work" [2Tim. 2:22].

One can only wonder, why people pay so little attention to that rot inside their souls: obviously, no one is consciously seeking peril for himself! Apparently, the enemy either blinds them, so they would reckon: “I am all set, as long as my sins are not public", — or makes them indefinitely to put off their most urgent job: “OK. tomorrow I will take serious care of myself and today just let me enjoy my wicked thoughts and dreams, if not actions". If you have such an attitude, drop it sooner rather than later, lest it gets rooted in your soul and stays there forever, like an old man's habit.

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