Why do we sometimes feel resistance to God's commandments?


He who has taken the fulfillment of God’s will as his life’s goal strives to know this all-holy will thoroughly and without fail by searching with the greatest diligence the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament, by reading the writings of the Fathers, by talking and consulting with mature Christians, by fulfilling the evangelical commandments with his external conduct, with his mind and heart. “The law of freedom,” said the Venerable Mark the Ascetic, “is honored by true understanding, understood by the work of the commandments and fulfilled by the mercies of Christ.”

When the Christian begins to live in accordance with the good, pleasing and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2), in other words with the commandments of the New Testament, the fall and impotence of human nature is suddenly revealed to him. Weakness does not allow him to fulfill God's commandments in a pure and holy manner, as He requires, and the fall resists - often with the greatest ferocity - the fulfillment of God's commandments.

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov

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