St. Theodoros The Great Ascetic - 81 - 84

81. Do not try to trip your neighbor up with deceitful words, lest you yourself be tripped up by the destroyer. For, as the prophet affirms, 'The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man' (Ps. 5:6), 'The Lord will destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaks proud words' (Ps. 12:3). Similarly, do not revile your brother for his faults, lest you lapse from kindness and love. For the person who does not show kindness and love towards his brother 'does not know God, for God is love' (1 John 4:8), as John the son of thunder and beloved disciple of Christ proclaims; and he adds that if Christ, the Savior of all, 'laid down His soul for us, then we ought to lay down our souls for our brethren' (1 John 3:16).

82. Love has fittingly been called the citadel of the virtues, the sum of the Law and the prophets (cf. Matt. 22:40: Rom. 13:10). So let us make every effort until we attain it. Through love we shall shake off the tyranny of the passions and rise to heaven, lifted up on the wings of the virtues; and we shall see God, so far as this is possible for human nature.

83. If God is love, he who has love has God within himself. If love is absent, nothing is of the least profit to us (of. I Cor. 13:3); and unless we love others we cannot say that we love God. For, writes St John, Tf a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar' (1 John 4:20). And again he states: 'No man has ever seen God. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us' (1 John 4:12). From this it is clear that love is the most comprehensive and the highest of all the divine blessings spoken of in the Holy Scriptures. And there is no form of virtue through which a man may become akin to God and united with Him that is not dependent upon love and encompassed by it; for love unites and protects the virtues in an indescribable manner.

84. When we receive visits from our brethren, we should not consider this an irksome interruption of our stillness, lest we cut ourselves off from the law of love. Nor should we receive them as if we were doing them a favor, but rather as if it is we ourselves who are receiving a favor; and because we are indebted to them, we should beg them cheerfully to enjoy our hospitality, as the patriarch Abraham has shown us. This is why St John, too, says: 'My children, let us love not in word or tongue, but in action and truth. And by this we know that we belong to the truth' (1 John 3: 18-19).