Are You Following the Saints, Being Contentious and Zealous for Salvation?

Be contentious and zealous, brothers, but about the things that relate to salvation. You have searched the Scriptures, which are true, which were given by the Holy Spirit; you know that nothing unrighteous or counterfeit is written in them. You will not find that righteous people have ever been thrust out by holy men. The righteous were persecuted, but it was by the lawless; they were imprisoned, but it was by the unholy. They were stoned by transgressors; they were slain by those who had conceived a detestable and unrighteous jealousy. Despite suffering these things, they endured nobly. For what shall we say, brothers? Was Daniel cast into the lions’ den by those who feared God? Or were Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael shut up in the fiery furnace by those devoted to the magnificent and glorious worship of the Most High? Of course not! Who, then, were the people who did these things? Abominable men, full of all wickedness, who were stirred up to such a pitch of wrath that they tortured cruelly those who served God with a holy and blameless resolve; they did not realize that the Most High is the champion and protector of those who with a pure conscience worship His excellent name. To Him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. But those who patiently endured with confidence inherited glory and honor; they were exalted, and had their names recorded by God as their memorial for ever and ever. Amen.

Therefore we too, brothers, must follow examples such as these. For it is written: “Follow the saints, for those who follow them will be sanctified” (Source unknown). And again it says in another place: “With the innocent man you will be innocent, and with the elect you will be elect, and with the perverse man you will deal perversely” (Ps. 17.26-27, LXX). Let us, therefore, join with the innocent and righteous, for these are the elect of God. Why is there strife and angry outbursts and dissension and schisms and conflict among you? Do we not have one God and one Christ and one Spirit of grace which was poured out upon us? And is there not one calling in Christ? Why do we tear and rip apart the members of Christ, and rebel against our own body, and reach such a level of insanity that we forget that we are members of one another? Remember the words of Jesus our Lord, for He said: “Woe to that man! It would have been good for him if he had not been born, than that he should cause one of my elect to sin. It would have been better for him to have been tied to a millstone and cast into the sea, than that he should pervert one of my elect” (Cf. Mt. 26.24; Lk. 17.1-2). Your schism has perverted many; it has brought many to despair, plunged many into doubt, and caused all of us to sorrow. And yet your rebellion still continues.

Let us therefore root this out quickly, and let us fall down before the Master and pray to Him with tears, that He may be merciful and be reconciled to us, and restore us to the honorable and pure conduct which characterizes our love for the brotherhood. For this is an open gate of righteousness leading to life, as it is written: “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter by it” (Ps. 117, LXX).