Shallow Christians

Protopresbyter Dionysios Tatsis | July 11, 2025 | Orthodoxos Typos

 

Many Christians enjoy participating in discussions on various ecclesiastical topics and especially on moral issues, but when it comes to the spiritual life in Christ, they refer to shining examples of clergy and elders, without omitting descriptions of scandalous behaviors.

When a cleric finds himself among them and has the opportunity to converse and the patience to listen, he becomes the recipient of many opinions and needs to distinguish the chaff from the wheat, without provoking intense reactions and sharpness. At the beginning of the discussion, he must be tolerant, but not yielding in their arguments. And he must always be careful that his interlocutors do not drift into worldly and political matters, because then a coffeehouse atmosphere is created, which is in every respect negative. He also needs to face with composure the “know-it-alls,” who, with heightened egoism, deviate into uncontrolled verbosity and blameworthy foul language.

In the case where such a discussion with references to spiritual matters has a favorable end, each person must immediately reconsider alone the conclusions that were drawn and make the saving decisions. But this does not happen with most people. They simply remain at the level of the pleasant conversation and would willingly participate in another, when the opportunity arises. It is observed in advance that even in a subsequent discussion, the same individuals will engage with the same topics, holding the same opinions, without any change and without any serious reevaluation. That is, vain effort and loss of precious time. Unfortunately, all remain unchanged, all are indifferent, and none feel the need to apply anything. While they appear to have spiritual interest, in reality they have the spigot of their barrel open and no wine remains inside!

These Christians are superficial Christians, and their heart is captive to the worldly mindset! They remain at certain displays of religious content, which naturally do not bring about the inner transformation of the soul and do not lead to the keeping of the commandments.

Saint Justin Popovich notes the following noteworthy things about people who ignore that Christ is the Savior: “They reject the essence of Christianity and the entire struggle of Christ for the salvation of men. Thus, for many, Christ has ceased to be an ascetic labor and a necessity and has ended up as an ornament or a national custom, a folk tradition, a monument, moralism, a philosophy—everything except a radical transformation of man: from mortal to immortal, from sinful to sinless, from demonic to a man of God. Christianity has become shallow, so shallow that it has been completely destroyed. Thus, material civilization has become everything. The sense of immortality has been lost and, consequently, that of reverence, of heaven, of man's heavenly origin, of his being in the image of God.” [1]

For shallow Christians, there is only one hope for them to become conscious: to be persuaded by a shining example of a saint, at the moment when they themselves are facing a problem and are desperately seeking a solution. And at the same time, to remember the words of Saint John Chrysostom, who emphasized that Christians are true philosophers. The saint said: “Let us accept the counsel of the teacher of the inhabited world and let us consider who they ought to be who have once and for all become partakers of the ineffable mysteries, how they ought to be strangers to the present life—not to dwell somewhere outside and far from this world, but while living in this world and interacting with it, they should be in no way different from those who live far from the world, and they will shine like the stars and show the unbelievers through their works that they have transferred themselves to another polity, and that they have nothing in common with the earth and worldly things.” [2]

 

Notes:

1. Saint Justin Popovich, Theosophical Teachings of Orthodox Terminology and Patristic Life, Thessaloniki 2021, p. 50.

2. Chrysostom, IV, p. 716.

 

Greek source:  

https://orthodoxostypos.gr/%ce%bf%e1%bc%b1-%cf%81%ce%b7%cf%87%ce%bf%ce%af-%cf%87%cf%81%ce%b9%cf%83%cf%84%ce%b9%ce%b1%ce%bd%ce%bf%ce%af/