Our Holy Fathers of Orthodoxy have always stressed the importance of doing the right thing for the right purpose, a principle outside of which there is no Orthodoxy. This understanding is very fundamental to the Faith, and one could say it really forms the base of Orthodox Christianity. We are often thought in the Church that we need to do the good things outside of the public eye, in secret, so that when we do it we are not trying to justify ourselves before the eyes of the World but rather before the eyes of the Heavenly Father.

Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is precisely the difference between genuine Orthodoxy and World Orthodoxy that has fallen under charismatic revival influences. As opposed to genuine Orthodoxy, World Orthodoxy likes to boast itself in itself, not for the glory of God, but for its own glory.

This is exactly the trap Mr Putin and World Orthodoxy he represents seem to have fallen in, unfortunately, and the devil knows exactly how to exploit this kind of weakness. Rather than seeing the trap, they go right in it.

Why? Take for example the recent developments in Ukraine. As we showed right from the start of the hostilities, the focus should had been primarily about preserving Orthodoxy – not about appointing themselves as the saviors of all Christians worldwide (that is rather an ambitious plan stemming from pride), but focusing on saving Orthodoxy for the sake of saving the True Faith. If anyone else wants to be saved they should come back to Orthodoxy. But this is precisely the problem, being concerned with justifying themselves and their actions before the eyes of the world, rather than before the Heavenly Father. They want to be seen as the saviors, and the media is doing an extremely good job at helping with this. It is sad to see important Orthodox commentators that do an extremely good job on uncovering the plots of the West, only to just fall right into the trap at the other end.

http://orthodoxaustralia.org/2014/03/23/how-do-you-conquer-orthodoxy/

There was indeed a window of opportunity that was unfortunately missed, and the devil has used its cunning ways one again to make things much more complicated – it just understood exactly how to exploit this vulnerability. What the devil did was to orchestrate this whole false flag MH17 event that has just put Putin in a corner from where it is going to be hard to come out in a true Orthodox way – the devil made it Putin’s personal war now, even if it may not be Mr Putin’s fault at all. It is now Putin vs The West. The entire western media is blaming Putin personally in one voice, and that is going to make it very difficult for Mr Putin to do anything about it, without it being seen as a matter of personal revenge – the least Orthodox option of all.

If Mr Putin does indeed do something, it will now most certainly be the right thing for the wrong purpose, and it is indeed the purpose that matters. If Mr Putin is going to go and invade Eastern Ukraine, or take any sort of measures against the West, it will most likely be seen as a reaction to the personal accusations of the West against him, thus doing much harm to Orthodoxy he supposedly represents.

Alternatively, if Mr Putin does nothing, the devil will become even more emboldened, and the voices screaming for a response will only grow louder. Not doing anything only means suffering for the Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, at the hands of apostate West, will reach new levels. If he does nothing, he will be seen as a “weak” leader, just like his counter-party in the US. Difficult situation indeed.

Unfortunately with Mr Putin having already established himself as a bare-chested Hollywood Western movie hero who is capable of taking all matters into his own hands (the sort of new Chuck Norris or Rambo of the East), the true Orthodox options become very limited. Already being seen as an “Orthodox” president who needs to be escorted by Russia’s Doomsday Plane just to see his spiritual father for advise, and encouraging the media to make it widely known, are all elements that make up an “Orthodox” leader’s image that will be very hard to undo.

Would God be impressed by the show-off of worldly power? What does Psalm 146 say?

“One shall not delight in the strength of his horse …”

http://conservativeread.com/russian-doomsday-plane-active-for-4th-consecutive-day/