A distinctive feature of the righteous in all the times was considered, if not as a total indifference, at least, as a sober calm relation towards these circumstances of life, in which it was. And the problem here is not in the ascetic indifference to everything which takes place all around, but in this system of values and priorities of the life, which is inherent to everyone, going on the way of righteousness. We could have said that to the one who put himself on this way, it does not simply remain time for lamentations about the difficulties of life, also, as for the demonstrations of exuberant joy about their absence. But the problem is not only in it: the way of righteousness supposes the understanding by man of the simple fact that the question of good and evil, quite as the question of choice between them (the key issue on the way of righteousness) is connected not at all with the question on the difficulties of life or with their absence.

Neither poverty, nor wealth in themselves justify any sin. When it comes to the spiritual way of the Christian, all this is true to an even greater extent. Indeed, the way of the righteous in the pre-Christian era meant the choice of the laws of the Kingdom, despite the fact that the Kingdom had not entered our world and our lives yet. After the coming of Christ, opens to every Christian the possibility of joining this Kingdom, to try what is that life, of which the righteous of early eras could only guess.

On the background of this new life, the difficulties of the old life, the life of our not yet transformed world, only go to the second plan, unless the life of the Kingdom really became for us a reality, if we are Christians in deeds, and not only in our own imagination. And Paul, for whom the Kingdom and his life became an absolute reality, witnesses of his own indifference to the difficulties of life and the external conditions, as of something obvious. That is only how the Christian should look at everything which doesn’t influence on his life in the Kingdom.

We encounter once again with the paradoxicality of the Holy Scriptures. The apostle Paul practically repeats the words of Jesus, said by Him in the sermon on the Mountain - "be careful for nothing". But is it not the same Jesus who gives us the command to love one another, and thus - to care for one another. And the famous 25th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew puts our fate in direct dependence, in how we care about others. What all this really means?

Doesn’t it seem to you that the word "careful" has two meanings: an effective help to someone and a certain internal burden, "fixed" on something? Care in the first meaning absolutely enters into the notion of Christian life. But care in the second meaning is something completely improper to Christians. There is in it an impasse, despair, distrust in the fact that there is an exit from a difficult situation. After all it is distrust of God. And that is why Paul writes not only "be careful for nothing", but also "to let your requests be made known unto God" - with trust and gratitude for all that He has already made, and – in advance! - for all that He will still do.

It is unlikely that carelessness is the ideal, to which the apostle Paul summons his readers. Indeed, carelessness is always connected to irresponsibility, to the refusal of the responsibility, which the Creator commends us. But the apostle says rather how we should care correctly. Neither anxiety, nor the forfeit of sanity, nor the exhaustion of people surrounding by one’s own complaints can be called the right forms of care. Instead of all this, the apostle suggests us to always unveil our demands to God. Well then, the responsibility that God gave to each of us gets filled with His creative power.

From the point of view of the technology of spiritual life, it is not less important the fact as the apostle calls us to thanksgiving. It is also about gratitude for all the mercies which we have already received from God, and about gratitude connected to concrete demands. The fact is that, in such way not the strength of our anxiety expresses itself in our demands to God, but the strength of our faith.

And the apostle concludes his thought with the indication of the most mattering in our everyday spiritual work: the aspiration to the peace of God. This peace is much deeper than the emotional tranquility; it is especially why we can keep it for most difficult circumstances. And it {the peace} is indispensable for us, in order to be with God. Maybe, the main source of the torments of the human mind is the fact that we try to satisfy the need put in us in God's world by substitutes. But in reality this peace is reached by such childlike openness to God, which the apostle Paul talks about.