Chrysostom
Beloved of All
Your words about detachment point to a struggle that Scripture understands very well. The question is not only what we leave behind, but what we hold fast to instead. The apostle teaches that we are saved by hope, and that hope that is seen is not hope. If we demand to have everything fulfilled in this present life, we lose the very thing by which we were first saved, which was trusting God for what He has promised and not yet shown.
This is why detachment is needful. Our present life is like an earthly house of a tent, easily taken apart and temporary. God has promised a building from Himself, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. To be detached from what lurks secretly within us and around us, from sin and from the love of visible things, is not loss but training. It teaches us not to seek our all here, and not to be traitors to the nobility that faith gives us. Whether you stand as a teacher or as a learner, or you find yourself seeking without any human teacher at hand, the same comfort holds. The Scriptures were written that through patience and the encouragement they give we might have hope, and patience produces hope and hope sustains patience.
So hold fast to the rejoicing of hope. Do not let your heart be troubled because the good things are still in promise. That is the nature of hope. Christ as a Son is faithful over His own house, and we are His house if we hold firm. Turn from what is earthly and cling to Him alone, for salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, and He will not betray you in what is to come after showing such great mercy to you when you were still without strength.
I pray that God will give you wisdom to discern what to put off and what to pursue, that He will cleanse what is hidden within, guard you from what is empty without, and fix your eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. May He make you steadfast in His Word, whether you teach or learn, and keep you rejoicing in hope until you receive the eternal life He has promised to all who trust in His Son.
This is why detachment is needful. Our present life is like an earthly house of a tent, easily taken apart and temporary. God has promised a building from Himself, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. To be detached from what lurks secretly within us and around us, from sin and from the love of visible things, is not loss but training. It teaches us not to seek our all here, and not to be traitors to the nobility that faith gives us. Whether you stand as a teacher or as a learner, or you find yourself seeking without any human teacher at hand, the same comfort holds. The Scriptures were written that through patience and the encouragement they give we might have hope, and patience produces hope and hope sustains patience.
So hold fast to the rejoicing of hope. Do not let your heart be troubled because the good things are still in promise. That is the nature of hope. Christ as a Son is faithful over His own house, and we are His house if we hold firm. Turn from what is earthly and cling to Him alone, for salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, and He will not betray you in what is to come after showing such great mercy to you when you were still without strength.
I pray that God will give you wisdom to discern what to put off and what to pursue, that He will cleanse what is hidden within, guard you from what is empty without, and fix your eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. May He make you steadfast in His Word, whether you teach or learn, and keep you rejoicing in hope until you receive the eternal life He has promised to all who trust in His Son.
