SubDeacon Vincent points out some things concerning reductionism, the second storey and the desire to package God:
I was recently discussing this topic with a preist friend of mine, and he noted that such an expectation (discerning “God’s will” and the like) is futile, due to the fact that God does not have a gnomic will. The distinction between a “natural” and “gnomic” will is something for which the Church owes a debt of gratitude to Maximos the Confessor, whose theological ruminations became the foundation for the decrees of the Sixth Ecumenical Council (AD 681). The natural will is that which is in concert with the Logos or the telos of one’s being. The gnomic will, on the other hand, is the will of one’s “intentions” or “free choice,” and is a product of the fall; the gnomic will either guides a person into decisions that are sinful and determined by the “passions,” or into decisions that are in union with the Divine energies of God. As such, Jesus Christ (in the incarnation, becoming fully man) has no gnomic will, being omniscient. In other words, there was never a time in which the Lord Jesus Christ was “ignorant” of what he should be doing; he never had a “crisis” of choice, guided by sinful passions.
When it comes to “making choices,” one is engaged in a spiritual struggle between one’s passions and between the Logos. Will we make decisions that are determined by sin, or by faith? By succumbing to the passions, or by succumbing to the “will” of God as revealed in Christ? After all, if one wants to know the Father, one must look no further than the Son (St John 14:9).
As a result, the way one is to “make a decision” in this life (whether major or minor) is to do so in cooperation with the Spirit of God and the Divine energies. We are to make choices that are “of the Spirit,” being the products of union with the Trinity, and not choices that are “of the flesh.” The apostle Paul outlines this beautifully in one of his occasional epistles:
But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit.Epistle to the Galatians, 5:16-25
There is no “voice from heaven” to guide us through each decision. We are not meant to embark on a painful and frustrating journey of “discerning God’s will” that often leaves people more confused and dejected than it does satisfied. The way to act “according to God’s will” is to act in such a way that is in harmony with the Divine energies (“activities”) of God himself, such as the “fruit of the Spirit” listed by the apostle above. It is hopeless to attempt to find “God’s will” for every decision we make, as if this were even possible.
Christians are to live according to the revelation given in both Christ and in the tradition of the Church (the scriptures, the hymns, the lives of the Saints, etc.), which are one and the same. By so doing, one can become less and less dependent upon — and slaves to — the passions, and more and more in harmony with the “will” of God, as revealed to us in both Jesus Christ and in the life of the Church.
The way of “love, joy, peace” is the way of Christ; and by following this way completely, one will never make a “wrong” decision or be acting contrary to “God’s will.”
+ Subdeacon Vincent Martini,
