If you do not do good, you will not receive evil. Do not do good - you will not get evil! Instructive story! Aleshkina love: an extraordinary interpretation of the song

We often hear from people disappointed in life: "Do not do good - you will not get evil." Why is it like this? What offended those who think so? We will understand in this article whether this aphorism is true.

Good and evil: absolute and relative concepts

It is difficult to deny that "Good" and "Evil" are categories, on the one hand, absolute (if we think about God and the devil), and on the other hand, relative (if we take into account the specific actions of people).

When a person reads fairy tales, he can easily distinguish between good and evil. Aside from the obvious, baddies usually look like they are. V real life everything is more complicated: friends betray, wives leave, parents leave (sometimes they just ignore). In other words, distinguishing good from evil is not so easy, especially at first, when everything is good.

Imagine a boy meets a girl, then they get married, they may have children, and he (or she) leaves. A partner left alone says sadly: "Do not do good - you will not get evil." Thus, he perceives the entire past married life as some of his own merit and as a kingdom of perfect good. But we know that husbands and wives don't just run away from anyone, right?

Can't be grateful forever

People have a selective memory: a person remembers well his merits and good deeds, but easily forgets about the evil that he inflicts on others. For example, a wife leaves her husband. He says: "Eh, do not do good - you will not get evil." The husband remembers well that he worked a lot for the good of the family, bought an apartment, a fur coat for his wife, but completely forgot that he did not pay any attention to her during this period, often stayed at work on "non-labor issues" and much more. These are all the tricks of his memory, she decided to hide it all so as not to injure her psyche and not lower her self-esteem.

The wife, in turn, can remember how she roamed in the kitchen, around the house, and he did not even pay attention to it. Therefore, she can say the phrase "do not do good - you will not get evil" before leaving for another or simply leaving her husband.

The case described here can include any couple: parents and children, friends.

Parents and children

Imagine being an authoritarian parent. They decide what to drink, eat, what to wear, where to go to study, who to be friends with, and then suddenly, when the time of student life begins, their blessed child, breaking off the leash, arranges for the parents the end of the world. Parents can only say puzzledly: "Do not do good to people - you will not get evil," and cry bitterly. And the most interesting thing is that their tears will be completely sincere.

They did not understand that throughout their life they were simply crippling the soul of their child, all the time telling him how to live, who to be friends with and what to wear, and now, when the child has gained courage and strength from the "symmetrical answer", his reaction seems to be the closest ancestors of cosmic injustice and the same amazing phenomenon as +40 in winter in Murmansk. But it turns out that everything has a reason.

Aleshkina love: an extraordinary interpretation of the song

All (or many) know the song: "They say that it is ugly to beat the girls from their friends ...". And all the suffering of the singing from the fact that he does not want to lose either his friend or his beloved. He is afraid that Alyoshka will say: "If you do not want to get evil, do not do good."

The hero's fears are justified, but here you have to make a choice: either love or friendship. This is a very difficult and disgusting, disgusting dilemma, but life is sometimes a very nasty thing.

Earring (let the singing be called that) with Alyosha, perhaps, went through fire, and water, and copper pipes. One more than once pulled the other out of various troubles, but then Lyubov (or simply Lyuba) came, and that's all - you need to make a fateful choice. A friend, if he is real, will understand and forgive. He just needs time.

Linguistic twist

We have considered different situations, when the proverb is used "do not do good - you will not get evil." Now it is time to specify its meaning specifically. As it is easy to understand from examples, this proverb is present in the vocabulary of those people who consider themselves righteous and benefactors. They believe that they saturate the world with exclusively good, and either evil or nothing returns to them.

In a sense, such people are the type of modern Job who kneels with hands and eyes facing the sky and asks: “Why me, Lord? But why?" But in the course of our not too extensive research, we realized that this is only a pose and a bad memory. There are no righteous people. There are no absolutely kind people, there are people with bad memories and callous hearts when it comes to other people's suffering and problems.

M. M. Zhvanetsky and folk wisdom

Michal Mikhalych has a wonderful phrase: "The slave says:" They are to blame for the fact that I ... ". A free man says: "I am to blame for the fact that I ..." ". Do you feel the difference? When we want to calm our conscience and convince ourselves and others of our own sinlessness, the saying “do not do good - you will not get evil” comes to mind. If we suddenly became conscious and overly advanced Homo sapiens, then we use another aphorism, more appropriate in this situation, for spiritual support. Perhaps something from the legacy of existential philosophical thought, if not satisfied with the work of Michal Mikhalych.

Why can't you think the way the saying goes?

When we discard ourselves from responsibility for what is happening to us, then, on the one hand, we put on the costume of the victim, and on the other hand, we recognize that we are only puppets in the hands of fate. Perhaps the last statement is true, but a person should not think so. This way of thinking is irreparably damaging to the construction harmonious life, which even on earth, contrary to the opinion of the bilious critics, is quite possible.

Man can arrange everything in the best manner only if he is ready to answer for his every action, regardless of whether it is true or false. This is the only way to come to the light. And one should not be afraid of pain, because only through suffering is truth revealed. If truths are important, they are, like pricks, very painful. Medicines are also nasty and disgusting, but they help a person live and breathe, and life is a great gift. At least some people think so. If a person is not too sure that life is so wonderful, then medications allow him to at least watch a certain number of films and read a certain number of books, and, of course, work for the benefit of society.

You might think that we have deviated a little from the topic, but this is not the case. All this is included in the orbit of the theme "Do not do good - you will not get evil: the meaning of the proverb." Folk aphorisms are as follows: they awaken many associations, thoughts and feelings that must certainly be touched. All this must be discussed in a necessary way so that there is no understatement.

And finally. It is better to replace the saying "do not do good - you will not get evil" to be replaced by something like: "if they did wrong with me, then it was I and only I who made a mistake." It is important to say here that this behavior has nothing to do with the Christian thought of two bruised cheeks. If you have been treated meanly, then you must draw certain conclusions about the person who treated you badly, and correct your own shortcomings and shortcomings so that this does not happen again for ever and ever. Amen.

Two cherries. Parable of St. Nicholas of Serbia

One person had two cherries in front of the house. One was evil and the other was kind. Whenever he left the house, they called him and asked for something. The evil cherry every time asked for different things: either “dig me in”, then “whitewash me”, then “give me a drink”, then “remove excess moisture from me”, then “shield me from the hot sun”, then “give me more light” ... And the kind cherry always repeated the same request: "My lord, help me bring a good harvest!"
The owner was equally merciful to both, looked after them, listened carefully to their requests and fulfilled all their desires. He did what both one and the other asked, in other words, the evil cherry gave everything that she demanded, and the good one only what he considered necessary, with the ultimate goal of a beautiful and abundant harvest.
And then what happened? The evil cherry blossomed strongly, the trunk and branches glittered as if they had been smeared with oil, and the abundant foliage was dark green, spreading like a thick tent. In contrast to her, kind cherry to her appearance did not attract anyone's attention.
When harvest time came, the evil cherry disfigured small rare fruits, which, due to the dense foliage, could not ripen in any way, and the good one brought many, many very tasty berries. The evil cherry became ashamed that she could not give such a crop as her neighbor, and she began to grumble at the owner, reproaching him for this. The owner got angry and answered: - Am I to blame for this? Was it not I who fulfilled all your desires for a whole year? If you thought only about the harvest, I would help you to bear the same abundant fruits as hers. But you pretended to be smarter than me, who imprisoned you, which is why you remained sterile.
The evil cherry repented bitterly and promised the owner that next year she would think only about the harvest, and she would ask him only for this, and leave the rest to him to take care of. As promised, she did so - she began to behave like a kind cherry. And on next year both cherries brought equally good harvest, and their joy, as well as the owner's, was great.
***
The moral of this simple parable is clear to all who pray to God.
The owner of the garden is the God of this light, and people are His seedlings. Like any owner, God requires a harvest from His plantings. "Every tree that does not give birth to good is cut down and thrown into the fire!" - says the Gospel. Therefore, first and foremost, you need to take care of the harvest. And we must pray to the Master - God, “the Lord of the harvest,” for a good harvest. You don't need to ask the Lord for little things. Look, no one goes to the earthly king to ask him for some little thing that can be easily obtained elsewhere.
“Our Lord is the Lord Giver,” says St. John Chrysostom. He loves when His children ask Him for something great, worthy of a prince. And the greatest gift that God can give to people is the Kingdom of Heaven, where He Himself reigns. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ commands: "Seek first of all the Kingdom of God, and the rest will be added to you." And He also commands: “Don't worry about what you will eat, or what you will drink, or what you will wear. Your Heavenly Father knows you need all of these. ” And He also says: "Even before your prayer, your Father knows what you need!"
So what should you ask God for? First of all, that which is the best, the greatest and the most infinite. And these will be those spiritual riches that are called by one name - the Kingdom of Heaven. When, first of all, we ask God for this, He gives, along with this wealth, and everything else that we need in this world. Of course, it is not forbidden to ask God and about the rest that we need, but this can only be asked at the same time as the main thing.
The Lord Himself teaches us to pray for bread every day: "Give us this day our daily bread! .." the dominion of the will of God on earth, as in Heaven.
So, first spiritual benefits, and only then material ones. All material goods are made of dust, and the Lord easily creates them and gives them easily. He gives them by His grace, even to those who do not ask for it. Gives them to animals as well as people. However, He never gives spiritual benefits either without human will or without seeking. The most precious wealth, that is, spiritual, such as peacefulness, joy, kindness, mercy, patience, faith, hope, love, wisdom and others, God can give as easily as he gives material benefits, but only to those who love these spiritual treasures and who will ask God for them.

Unfortunately in Lately out of mouth people who come to see a psychologist, more and more often one hears the expression: “They say the truth:“ Do not do good, you will not get evil. ”But you cannot say so categorically, imagine what our world would be like if all people lived by this principle ...

At the same time, it really happens hurt when helping someone and completely trusting him, you become a victim of deception or receive evil in gratitude. For example, taking pity on someone, the owner invites him to live with him and after a while finds himself in a situation where the relative begins to show his character, sort out the relationship and leaves to live in another place, expressing resentment instead of gratitude. He stops communicating with the owner and tells everyone about him as a person who has offended him and is unworthy of respect.

So it turns out that master wanted to do good to a relative, but in return received evil. It is not for nothing that the expression "do not do good, you will not get evil" among the people has stuck, and it is especially relevant today, when many people try not to notice the problems of other people, and are only concerned about their own well-being.

For simplicity of presentation meaning of this expression, consider human development as an example. After birth, the child is completely dependent on the mother, although he himself does not yet realize this. While the mother is caring for him and is on maternity leave, the baby takes the mother's care for granted. But now the mother goes to work, and the child takes the child to kindergarten. Naturally, the child does not like this course of events, he cries and realizes the absence of his mother, as in the first evil in his life. But in the evening, mom comes to pick him up, and the baby rejoices, enjoying her return. This is how he learns for the first time that the return of his mother is good.

However now baby fears that evil may repeat itself. He begins to better understand his needs and tries to prevent evil at any cost, but he loves to have pleasure. This leads to the development of selfishness in him, but so far only spontaneous childish. A little later, a person develops reasonable egoism, he begins to understand that he is not alone in striving for pleasure and involuntarily begins to compare himself with other people. He sees that someone manages to live well, and someone is deprived of life. This is how a person develops empathy and compassion.

Due to the peculiarities education for some people, these feelings turn into altruism - a willingness to selflessly do good to people, regardless of their own interests. An altruist, doing good, does not look out for any material benefit for himself and is guided in his actions only by mercy and compassion. So to understand the meaning of the expression: "Do not do good, you will not receive evil," you have to be an altruist in your soul. When doing good, one does not need to demand either from a person or from God his return. After all, many are doing good and waiting for dedication. If the "barter exchange" does not work out, then the person regrets that he did a benefit to another person to the detriment of his interests. He thinks that he received evil for the good shown to him.

According to statistics altruists in the world only 10%, and the remaining 90% of people living on the planet can consider themselves selfish. Healthy selfishness prevents us from doing much good to others so as not to question our well-being and the survival of family members. Of course, many of us are ready to help a person in trouble, but altruists try to find those who need help themselves, and surround them with care and attention. They are worried about everything: the ecological situation, sick children, lonely old people, the extinction of rare animals and everything else that can harm human health and life. Today, altruists become volunteers, help lonely old people and orphans, sick animals and everyone who finds themselves in a difficult life situation. At all times, the foundations of society were entirely based on the concept of altruists, because their behavior and way of life are beneficial to the state and the people themselves.

But not always gratuitous help can be deservedly appreciated by others. For example, how many people do doctors save from death every day, and instead of gratitude, they often hear words of accusation against them.

To help people - professional duty doctor, but to impose your help on everyone, if you do not work, and no one asks you about it, it is not necessary. Forced good is an unpleasant intrusion into someone else's life. For example, many parents continue to help their adult children financially, although they already earn good money themselves and do not need them. By doing good, they unconsciously try to make their children dependent, so that they are always grateful to them and respond with good for good. But the children have their own family, they try, following the example of their parents, to provide for their children first, and they visit elderly parents whenever possible.

For this reason, there are often conflicts between generations, where parents accuse their children with the words: "we helped you, and now you help." But only a disinterested manifestation of good is sure to return to a person. That is, if you want to help people - help, but do not impose your help on them unnecessarily. And having done a good deed, forget immediately and don't tell anyone else about it. After all, all people want to look successful and independent, and they hate pity and patronage in relation to themselves.

In the cycle of events taking place around, we all lose that sacred, that human, which should prevail in each of us. The world has slipped to the point where people are afraid to do good to each other, to come up with advice, as this is fraught with consequences. Stretching out a helping hand can leave you without a “hand”, since such a colossus turns against you that you automatically become an enemy of the “people”.

Why is every act regarded from the outside as a step for insidious plans? Famous saying"Do not do good, you will not receive evil" as never before is suitable for defining this time, since all human values ​​are lost. As cynical as it may sound, some people have lost all ethical and moral standards, following their blind dream of being one of the revered and respected people among the same as everyone else. Understand that no one person is different from you. NOTHING.

And all why? Because everyone wants to see good as an evil intent, some kind of catch, some kind of strategy and the like. The question arises - why? What changed? What values ​​prevail? What is the reason for this attitude towards each other? The pursuit of the next rank, or the desire to show that you are somehow better than the surrounding mere mortals?

To understand why we receive such a reaction to this or that behavior, it is worthwhile to reverse the events that have occurred over the past few years, to retreat again and again from the accepted and understood truths, in order to return to them afterwards along new paths, with a new level of understanding of what happened. ... And each time receiving answers to the questions posed, do not rush to go further, analyze, think over every detail and trifle, look at all the questions through the prism of reality, maybe the answer lies in each of us. Yes, we love to complain about the modern world, about technology, about Western culture ... But who follows this all, isn't it ourselves?

So I don't know the answer. If each of us asks himself these questions, he will find himself a thousand excuses, but he will not find one for the others.

I cannot say unequivocally that the world is embittered, since there are still people who keep good traditions and do everything possible to spread a good disposition among the population, trying to convey to us that life is not only about following one's ego and passions. The world is something sublime and beautiful, but we are blind, and blindness is spiritual. And then we come to the understanding that fate goes on as usual, but this does not mean that we should not act and sit in anticipation of a miracle.

But having entered a new level and a new path, you cannot make the same mistakes, stumbling and turning around on those mistakes that are far behind. You have started a new path, even though everything is in the fog and imaginary personalities are visible in front, these are just illusions, you should be bolder and go forward.

Gulya Jamalova

Do not do good - you will not get evil. Of course, you don't need to be so categorical. But this proverb has taken root among the people for a reason. Somehow it is too often, helping someone, trusting, a person turns out to be "fools" or becomes a victim of deception. Here we are not even talking about gratitude, but about the fact that a person suffers from his good. For example, knowing the kindness of People's Artist Yuri Nikulin, people often came to him and asked for money. He helped everyone. And, as his relatives said, the people whom he helped, to put it mildly, were not always in need. This is a harmless example. And how many cases were there when, for example, letting in a stranger from the street for the night, the owner of the apartment turned out to be robbed, and in the worst case, killed. On this topic, we are talking with the priest Vladislav Chernets.

- Father Vladislav, the expression "Do not do good - you will not get evil" is, of course, too categorical, but it cannot be denied altogether. Why does a person pay for good?

- When a person does good, he should not demand either from God or from people to return it. In the Christian understanding, doing good is the fulfillment of the main commandment of Christ: love one another (John 15, 12). The Lord in the Gospel clearly says that it is not enough to love those who love us, for the Gentiles do the same. Christian love consists in complete selfless self-giving: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who offend you and persecute you (Matthew 5:44). God allows the wiles of the evil one for our salvation, so that we learn patience and humility. If we do not do good, then we cannot know how imperfect in our good deeds. After all, doing good, a person in most cases requires a "barter exchange". The providence of God works in a completely different way. For our salvation, so that a person learns more about himself, sees his sinfulness, evil in himself, we are sometimes really rewarded with evil for good.

- How do you think it has always been in Russia, or have cases of black ingratitude become more frequent in recent decades?

- And not only in Russia, but throughout the world since the fall of our forefathers. In the Bible, we see many examples on this topic. Ingratitude for the good that we do to people is given to us by God for humility and knowledge of our own soul. The relationship between God and man, doing good and striving for the Almighty are eternal questions, and the rest changes in the world as an external manifestation of life. Therefore, as in times ancient Russia, and in our time, these questions are always relevant for a person.

- Perhaps there is a recipe for this? Maybe you just don’t need to offer help to people or, roughly speaking, “go in with your good”?

- To this St. Tikhon of Zadonsk replied very well: “Avoid evil and do good for the sake of God, and not for any other reason: therefore, avoid evil, because He has forbidden it, and therefore do good because God commanded it. For all that is not pleasing to God that is not done for the sake of God. May the will of God, which does not want evil and wants good, be the goal in all your deeds. "

And concerning “to climb with your good,” the same saint subtly remarked: “Do not do what your conscience forbids you to do, for what an infallible conscience forbids, it also forbids the law of God. A good conscience agrees with the law of God. The law of God says: “Do not kill, do not steal,” and so on - you hear the same in your conscience, and it tells you the same. Beware of doing what your conscience forbids, so as not to hurt your soul by hurting your conscience. " Thus, the saint advises us: if we live according to our conscience, then the world will be much kinder, the same in personal relationships between people.

- Can we say that good has a downside? When, while doing good, a person, unwillingly, does evil. For example, a grandmother supplies money to a grandson, and he spends it on alcohol?

- The Holy Fathers say that the main virtue is discretion. If our help indulges drunkenness, passions and just human laziness, then this help is a "disservice". One Russian proverb says: "If you want to help another, give him not a fish, but a fishing rod." That is, if you want to help a person - help, but so that he can prevail over the flesh and passions. Of course, it is necessary to support a person, to help him in a difficult moment, but the person himself must always make efforts for his correction and repentance. After all, repentance means not only an "act of destruction", but a change, transformation of one's own mind, a change own life, work on oneself, life according to the commandments. That is, repentance in the full sense is a process of soul transformation, a process of ascent to God, and this work cannot be easy.

- What is the right way to do good? Perhaps you don't need to be overly compassionate to do this? Maybe you should be tougher and cooler?

- In no case should you do this, because it contradicts both the Christian way of life and is not inherent in man and his conscience in general. As the Christian apologist Tertullian put it: "The soul of man is by nature a Christian." Therefore, you need to do things without generating evil. The Monk Pimen the Great said: “Malice does not destroy malice. But if anyone does evil to you, do good to him, so that good deed destroy malice. " This is how Christian kindness works.

- Have there been any cases in your practice when parishioners “paid for the best”?

- Yes, of course, there were such cases in my priestly ministry. And I remember the words: be wise as serpents, and simple as doves (Matt. 10, 16). Indeed, in this advice, one does not exclude the other, but complements, and in different life circumstances both wisdom and simplicity are needed. Remarkable are the words of the Monk Mark the Ascetic: "Rejoice, not immediately after you have done good to someone, but when you endure the trial that follows without rancor." That is, we need not to be conceited and “rest on our laurels,” but to humbly be ready to do good again and again in the name of God, despite our clumsiness, unfavorable circumstances and the opposition of the evil one.

Natalia Koloyarova, g"Courier of the Volga Region" newspaper