“The Apostle Paul says that the Israelites, crossing the sea, were baptized in it (I Cor. 10:2). Such a baptism served for them as a division between Egypt and themselves. Peter the Apostle adds: The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (I Pet. 3:21). Our baptism saves us and serves as a dividing wall between the dark, satanic realm of sin and the world, and the brightness of life in Christ. One who is baptized cuts himself off from all earthly hopes and supports, and lives in this age as if in a desert, not tied to anything. His heart is not on the earth, it is totally in that age. All that is here touches him in passing, so that having a wife he is as though he has none; buying, he is as though possessing nothing. In general, he uses the world, as though he uses it not (cf. I Cor. 7:30).”
- Saint Theophan the Recluse
Reference: http://days.pravoslavie.ru/en/Days/20120306.htm
