One lawless merchant asks a buyer for a price higher than the goods are worth. He swears to it and invokes the holy and dread name of God in that lawless deed. Others like him do the same. Thus in other things also, poor people imitate one another. They imitate, but to their own harm and their own destruction.
This is an irrational thing. This is a beastly following. This is a plague by which Christian souls, redeemed by the most holy Blood of Christ, are infected and perish. This is a soul-destroying fire. Once it begins in one person, it burns other houses of the soul. Alas, calamity! Alas, grief! Evil begins in one person, and everyone does the same. Then it becomes custom and is so firmly established that it is impossible to uproot, like an old disease.
People will laugh at me if I do not do as they do. Answer: 1. Impiety always laughs at piety and mocks it. Suppose some wealthy man sells his rich house and all his possessions. Suppose he disperses all his estate, gives it to the poor, and loves the poverty of Christ. He will see for himself what he receives from the evil world. "Look what a fool has done! What people gather, he has squandered." Thus piety seems foolishness to the sons of this age.
2. Christ, our Savior, the Lord and King of glory, was mocked and reviled by those who love the world. Let the world laugh at you also and revile you. Know your own duty and do what is pleasing to Him, not to the world. Be conformed to Him as your Leader, not to this age.
3. Must we really do everything the world does? Many murder, commit adultery and fornication, steal, plunder, and so forth. Are we to do this too? May it not be so! They are going to destruction. Shall we go too? May the Lord preserve us from that.
4. We have not only sense, but also reason. We can judge what is good and what is evil, what is useful and what is harmful. Therefore, when we see what people do, we must follow reason, not the senses after the example of animals. Those who follow only the senses and not reason are not men, but animals.
5. We are Christians. We have the holy word of God. In it we see what is good and what is evil, what is useful and what is harmful. Thus God forbids what is evil and harmful to us, and commands what is good and useful to us. What are people doing? Let us apply this to Holy Scripture, as to a pure mirror, and look into it. Are people acting in agreement with it or against it? If they act in agreement, good; it is useful for us to do this. If they act against it, let us turn our eyes away and listen to what the sacred Book teaches.
6. Even if the whole world does what is contrary to God and destructive for itself, you should do what is pleasing to God and profitable for your soul. The whole world will not stand up for you before the Judgment of God. There you will not say, "So-and-so did this." You will hear only one thing from the Judge: "Why did you not do what I commanded you?" One must honor God alone, incomparably more than the whole world.
Be in the world as Lot was in Sodom, where everyone acted lawlessly, yet he did not imitate them. He did what was pleasing to the holy will of God. You also must do the same. Do not imitate what the evil world does. If you see or hear that people do evil, be as one who does not see and as a deaf man who does not hear. Always turn the eyes of your heart toward eternity. Then all worldly affairs will be behind you. You will live in the world as though alone, knowing your Creator and His holy will.
"If then you were raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col 3:1-2).
THEOSIS