Thousands around You Will Be Saved

For those of us coming from a Protestant background, especially from the "Evangelical" realm, we might be tempted to think of "saved" as 'made it into heaven', and thus accidentally read into St. Seraphim's saying a meaning something to the effect of, '...and thousands of people around you will accept Christ and become Christians as a result'. Though that meaning might be included in what St. Seraphim meant, it certainly is not the primary meaning, because that is not a traditionally Christian understanding of the word "saved".

Without delving into the deep end of trying to fully understand "saved" in a more Orthodox manner, I will try to hone in on the one important aspect I see at work, to help us understand this quote.

Think of the many places in the New Testament which speak of those "being saved"...well, that is not totally fair, because our translations do not always make that so clear in English. Search around online in various English versions for "being saved", and you will quickly find several examples in the Gospels, Acts, and Paul's letters. One thing that is clear, both from these examples and just from looking at this particular construction in English: 'being saved' is a process, not a point in time. All of life is a part of 'being saved', not just some final judgment day.

Add to that: we can safely assume St. Seraphim was not speaking of non-Christians becoming Christians, first, because he lived in a thoroughly Orthodox country, and second, because even though there were certainly plenty of people that were not Christians, the overwhelming majority of those who flocked to St. Seraphim would have been Orthodox Christians, either visiting the monastery or trying to visit the holy elder for spiritual guidance. The "thousands being saved" would have been everybody, Christian and non-Christian.

'Being saved' is less a matter of location (that is, being in or out), and more a matter of orientation: am I headed this way or that way. After all, Jesus Christ is the Way. He himself is the one true orientation.

So, if we only take into account this one aspect of 'being saved' and combine it with our previous understanding of "acquire the Spirit of Peace", we can understand much closer to what St. Seraphim meant by his quote. "Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and thousands around you will be saved" could be understood something like, 'Focus all your efforts on obtaining/earning every penny of grace you can from the Holy Spirit, and your grace-filled orientation toward Christ will draw thousands around you into the same Christ-ward orientation.'

With all that context in mind, the most different version of St. Seraphim's quote—different words, but probably a more accurate understanding of meaning—from Hieromonk Innocent at St. John’s Monastery in Manton, California, makes so much more sense: “If we save our souls, then thousands around us will be saved.”

And to bring this all back around to evangelism, a proper understanding of St. Seraphim's quote probably is a good understanding of evangelism. I would not say it completely encapsulates every potential method of evangelism, but I would say that this understanding of how to live the Christian life should be the foundation of any evangelistic method. Whether a missionary in China or a regular ol' faithful church attender in your local parish, whether monk or city-dwelling parishioner, this the Christian life.