First, though, we need to define the Christian telos, which is to say, the kingdom of God, a little more clearly. 14 As with purity of heart, Abba Moses says a great deal about it over the course of his conference. The first thing with which he connects the kingdom of God is eternal life.
So then, the telos of our [monastic] commitment is, to quote the apostle, eternal life-for he says “having, indeed, your fruit unto holiness and your telos, eternal life” [Rom 6.22]. Our immediate goal, though, is purity of heart, which he rightly dubs “holiness” here. Without this, our noted telos cannot be gained. Indeed, the apostle could have even substituted these very terms and said “having, indeed, your ‘immediate goal’ in ‘purity of heart’ and your telos eternal life.” 15
Having already stated that the telos of Christian life is the kingdom of God, Abba Moses here also claims that this telos is eternal life, thus directly equating the two on the grounds of Paul’s words in Romans. For this reason, Abba Moses sees the kingdom of God and death, which he considers to be connected to the kingdom of the devil, to be contrasting concepts.
Where the kingdom of God is, doubtless, there abides eternal life. And where the kingdom of the devil is, no doubt, there is death and hades. There a person can never praise the Lord, in accordance with the understanding of the prophet who says “the dead do not praise you, Lord-no, not any who descend into hades” [Psalm 113:17] (here, without a doubt, he means sin).16
Where there is death, there is hell, and hell, according to this passage, is in some sense sin itself. For Abba Moses, the kingdom of God is precisely where the death of sin is not, and thus by extension it is where unending life resides. Beyond the connection to eternal life and contrast to death and sin, this passage also links the kingdom of God to the praise of God. It does so by noting the inability to offer this praise for those who exist in death and sin. The kingdom, then, is in some sense an unending life of God’s praise, divorced from death, hell, and all that they represent.
Elsewhere, Abba Moses connects the kingdom of God with knowledge of truth, righteousness, peace, and above all, joy.
But nothing else can be “within you,” but knowledge or ignorance of truth, and delight either in vice or in virtue, through which we prepare a kingdom for the devil or for Christ in our heart. The apostle describes the character of this kingdom when he says, “for the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” [Rom 14.7]. And so, if the kingdom of God is within us, and righteousness and peace and joy are indeed that very kingdom itself … what should we imagine it to be except perpetual and lasting joy?17
The telos of the Christian is righteousness, peace and joy, and these things, in accordance with the teachings of Paul, are the kingdom of God residing within the human being. To know the truth and to love these things is to dwell in the kingdom, says Abba Moses.
~Daniel G. Opperwall, A Layman in the Desert
14. Note that Abba Moses sometimes uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” with the same meaning as “kingdom of God” as we have already seen him do in a quotation on p. 23.
15. Conf. I.V.2.
16. Conf. I.XIY.2.
17. Conf. I.XIlI.2-3. Translation adapted from Gibson.
