The Goal and the Means in a Victorious Life
The Goal and the Means in a Victorious Life
• Last week we spoke about the life of victory, and we mentioned many reasons for victory. Tonight we want to mention another important reason: clarity of the goal and the soundness of the means.
The Lord Jesus Christ was successful in His life, and this success is due to many theological and human reasons. Among these reasons is that His goal was clear before Him, and the means were also clear.
The goal of the Lord Jesus Christ was the Kingdom of God and the salvation of the world, and He never deviated from this goal at all. His goal was clear before His eyes, namely that “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
He also mentioned this goal in another place, saying: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The Lord Jesus Christ came to redeem people, to save what was lost, and to build the Kingdom of God on earth. The goal here was clear before Him; therefore, the image of the Cross never departed from His mind at all. At certain times He said: “For this purpose I came” (John 12:27). I came specifically for redemption.
• The Lord Jesus Christ defined His clear goal, which was the Kingdom of God and salvation, and He also defined the means, which was redemption. Therefore, some theologians consider that the entire life of the Lord Jesus Christ was a walk on the road to Golgotha from His birth until His crucifixion. Because of this, the Lord Jesus Christ was steadfast and did not accept any deviation from the goal. When kingship was offered to Him, He refused it. Why?
Because kingship does not agree with the goal nor with the means. Kingship does not agree with redeeming people nor with the Cross. Christ, who defined His goal, rejected the kingship that was offered to Him more than once. He refused it after the miracle of the five loaves and the two fish, and also when He entered Jerusalem and said: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). I have come to serve people and redeem them. Here we see firm footing on the path.
• Those who have no goal wander on the road and lose their way. There are many reasons that make us insist on the existence of a goal for a person to cling to until death, and to adopt sound means that lead him to his goal.
Many people do not have clear goals and walk through life without knowing where they are going. They have no defined purpose and no defined means.
One of the benefits of a fixed goal is that it determines the means that lead to its achievement. Another benefit of the goal is that it saves a person from hesitation, wavering, confusion, and deviation. The path is clear, and the person does not deviate to the right or to the left because the goal is known.
• The goal of the Lord Jesus Christ was salvation, and His means was redemption. Therefore, all His works led to this end. A person should place his goal before him at all times.
Take as an example John the Baptist. He knew his goal very well. He knew that his life had one goal: to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus Christ. He said: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’” (John 1:23).
John the Baptist not only knew his goal, but he also knew the means. The means were twofold: for the people, the means was preparing the way through repentance; and for himself, the means was preparing the way through self-denial. He said to the people: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2), and to himself he said: “He who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose” (John 1:27).
The goal was clear, and so was the means.
• Many people do not know where they are going because they do not know their goal. There is a person who is pulled to the right and to the left. He is convinced by one point of view, then another comes and directs him to a different point of view.
He asks in confusion: What should I do? What is required of me? He does not know himself and does not know his path.
Take the example of Saint Arsenius, the teacher of the sons of kings. Arsenius used to place before himself a beautiful saying: “Remember, O Arsenius, why you went out.”
Our holy fathers who lived in the desert had clear and explicit goals with no debate at all. Therefore, their feet were firm on the path. The only goal they placed before them was the salvation of the soul. They did not seek anything other than the salvation of their souls. Anything that stood in the way of the salvation of the soul, they removed from themselves. They also defined the means. The means for them were the life of sojourning, the life of purity, and the life of continual prayer. In these three matters, their entire lives were concentrated.
In the life of sojourning, each one of them would say to himself: I am a stranger—what do I have to do with all this? They lived a life of sojourning, not seeking fame, position, or job. In the same life of sojourning, they lived a life of complete purity. How can a person struggle with himself, with the devil, and with the world in order to preserve inner purity, even if he stands on the brink of martyrdom? They wanted to preserve their thoughts as belonging to God alone, thinking of nothing other than God. Therefore, they entered into the battle of thoughts and excelled in controlling thought and the senses in order to preserve purity of mind.
Our concept of purity of mind differs from theirs. For us, purity of mind is not to think about sin; for the fathers, purity of mind was not to think about anything other than our Lord. These fathers reached high peaks of spirituality because they preserved the soundness of their goals and the soundness of their means that lead to the goals.
• Our fathers the martyrs had a clear goal, which was confession of the Lord Jesus Christ regardless of the consequences, and their means was death. Each martyr placed before himself the goal and the means. The goal was confession of Christ, and the means was death. Therefore, temptations, threats, imprisonment, and tortures produced no result, because the goal was clear.
• Those who have a fixed goal do not accept compromise, discussion, or debate regarding it—neither discussions from people and from the devil, nor discussions from thoughts within, nor discussions from conversations and readings from outside.
Many of us who are hesitant accept discussion regarding our principles and goals, or at least regarding the means. But the Apostle Paul says: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
You must not accept compromise in your goals or your means.
• Our fathers the apostles succeeded in their goals and their means because they were clear. Their goal was witness, and their means was preaching. This clear goal did not accept compromise at all. When Peter was arrested, he said: “We cannot but speak… We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 4:20; 5:29). Therefore, the apostles were flogged, imprisoned, expelled, tortured, and falsely accused, yet they did not waver from their goals or their means. There was firmness of opinion, heart, emotions, and an iron will that did not accept compromise.
• Each of the prophets had a specific message and placed before himself a goal: obedience to God and delivering the message. No matter how much stubbornness or injustice he encountered, he did not deviate from his mission. Take the example of Jeremiah the prophet. He was a young man living in an evil generation. God said to him: “I have sent you to pluck up and to build.” It was a difficult mission—a mission of rebuke to an evil world. Kings, priests, and people were evil, and the prophets were false, and everyone needed rebuke. Jeremiah remained steadfast in his principle until the whole world stood against him and opposed him, to the extent that he once cried out, saying: “Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth… everyone curses me” (Jeremiah 15:10). Yet Jeremiah stood firm and unshaken because the goal was clear. He was gentle and sensitive, but God commanded him to tear down, so he accepted the command and said: Yes, Lord, I will do it. He also said: You have sent me, O Lord, on a path other than the one I loved, but I placed before myself that I must obey You.
• In the same way were our holy shepherd fathers. The goal of Athanasius the Apostolic was clear: the defense of the divinity of Christ. His means was also clear: complete teaching and enduring persecutions. They said to him: “The world is against you,” and he replied: “And I am against the world.”
• Now I want to ask you: What is your goal in life, and what is your path to reach this goal?
Each one of you has many goals, but at least there is one goal common to all of you. Every person on earth has one goal from which he must not deviate: the salvation of the soul. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36).
You have one soul. If you gain it, you gain everything; and if you lose it, you lose everything. Any path that distances you from the salvation of your soul—depart from it with all strength and firmness. Do not accept discussion at all regarding the salvation of your soul. On the path of the salvation of your soul, if a brother, a father, or a friend stands in the way, make the salvation of your soul the priority. The God who says to you, “Honor your father and your mother” (Matthew 15:4; 19:19; Mark 7:10), does not demand this honor at all if it conflicts with the salvation of your soul. He says: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
If your self conflicts with the salvation of your soul, you must trample upon your self. Therefore, the Scripture says: “He who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Regarding the salvation of your soul, the Scripture also says: “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out… and if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” (Mark 9:47, 43). Likewise, if your health conflicts with the salvation of your soul, you must sacrifice your health.
Our goal is that our souls cling to God, and we have no other goal besides this. For this goal, we are ready to give up everything for the salvation of our souls.
• Take the fasting period as an example. Sometimes we fast without having a goal or a means, and therefore we lose the blessing of fasting.
The goal of fasting is the discipline, refinement, and subjugation of the body. The Apostle Paul says: “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection” (1 Corinthians 9:27). Therefore, the person who has this clear goal in fasting begins to subdue the body and does not compromise his principles regarding food when he feels hunger.
• The children of God have always been strong, not lenient or compromising in their principles.
A person who compromises his principles can easily deviate. I have told you many times that the mind often becomes a faithful servant to the desires of the soul. If the soul deviates, it may cause the mind to deviate with it.
How miserable is the person who toils in life and then begins to reexamine his sound principles, or submits to someone who convinces him that his principles are not sound. He then wavers and is lost, finding neither his past, nor his present, nor his future.
The devil is skillful in sowing doubt. When you walk in spiritual goals and sound principles, you must be convinced of them and not accept discussion regarding them. If the devil fails to debate the goal, he debates the means.
• The war of doubt is one of the wars of the devil by which he seeks to shake principles. Therefore, I want you to be firm in your principles and strong in holding fast to them.
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