Yesterday I posted a section from a sermon by John Chrysostom. I thought it was worth sharing one more section from that sermon today. Here is how he ended his teaching to the church. After strongly encouraging them to pray for their government, he said:
It is not any costly process that we recommend to you: it does not require the spoiling of goods, nor a long and toilsome journey.
It is only to will. It is a word, it is a purpose of the mind. Let us only set a guard on our tongues, a door and a bar upon our lips, that we may utter nothing offensive to God.
It is for our own advantage, not for theirs for whom we pray, to act thus. For let us ever consider, that he who blesses his enemy, blesses himself, he who curses his enemy, curses himself, and he who prays for his enemy, prays not for him, but for himself. If we thus act, we shall be able to [actually] practice this excellent virtue, and so to obtain the promised blessings, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.