The Orthodox Way

by Kallistos Ware

As its title implies, the active life requires on our side effort, struggle, the persistent exertion of our free will. “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life…Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father” (Matt. 7:14, 21). We are to hold in balance two complementary truths: without God's grace we can do nothing; but without our voluntary co-operation God will do nothing. “The will of man is an essential condition, for without it God does nothing”15 (The Homilies of St Macarius). Our salvation results from the convergence of two factors, unequal in value yet both indispensable: divine initiative and human response. What God does is incomparably the more important, but man's participation is also required.